Activist investor and newly appointed Exxon board member Jeff Ubben is constructing his stake within the firm on the idea that the oil big will lik
Activist investor and newly appointed Exxon board member Jeff Ubben is constructing his stake within the firm on the idea that the oil big will likely be integral to the vitality transition.
“I’m,” he stated Thursday on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Road” when requested if he was planning to purchase extra Exxon shares. “I’m constructing this new enterprise…I actually consider that the return dynamics for Exxon from listed below are spectacular. They’re a part of the answer, not a part of the issue,” he stated.
Ubben, who’s a proponent of ESG investing, joined Exxon’s board in March amid stress from shareholders to reshuffle administrators because the inventory value languished.
ESG refers to a type of sustainable investing that facilities on three elements: environmental, social and company governance.
Ubben is not any stranger to investing in oil and gasoline corporations. Whereas at ValueAct, the agency he based in 2000, he took a stake in BP, saying conventional vitality corporations can belong in ESG portfolios.
In current months, Exxon has doubled down on its dedication to environmental objectives as oil majors within the U.S. and overseas look to make their operations greener.
On Monday, the corporate proposed a $100 billion carbon seize undertaking in Houston that may require the assist of the business and the federal government. In February, Exxon introduced plans to take a position $three billion in carbon seize and different emissions-cutting know-how.
Ubben famous that whereas net-zero energy technology may be completed by renewable vitality, Exxon’s dimension and scale makes it able to tackling areas which are tougher to decarbonize, together with transportation and industrial exercise.
“If you consider Exxon’s position, it is to do the laborious stuff, and you can’t get to web zero with out doing the laborious stuff,” he stated. “To make use of the present infrastructure and seize the carbon might be the least costly and quickest solution to web zero,” he added.
Exxon’s emission-reduction targets have come beneath hearth from those that say it is too little too late. Engine No. 1, an activist group that is been concentrating on Exxon since December, stated the corporate hasn’t gone far sufficient in outlining its position in a zero-carbon world.
“We consider that reacting to the specter of a shareholder vote isn’t the identical as a coherent and value-enhancing long-term technique, and that with out actual change these positive aspects may very well be short-lived,” the group stated in March following Exxon’s investor day.
Nonetheless, Ubben stated the corporate is engaged on “breakthrough applied sciences” supported by 20,000 scientists. He added that Exxon is the chief within the $2 trillion carbon seize enterprise.
“That is the know-how that can get us there quickest, and net-zero would not occur with out it,” he stated.
Shares of Exxon have been barely decrease on Thursday, however are up 35% this yr.
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– CNBC’s Kerry Caufield contributed reporting.