Wells Fargo – Formulate A Comprehensive Emissions Reduction Plan (2007)

Outcome: Successfully Withdrawn.

Whereas: Climate change and impending policies associated with reducing Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions have significant implications for Wells Fargo & Company (“Wells Fargo” or “Company”) and its competitors;
Whereas: The Company’s U.S. and global peers are implementing substantial new policies, programs, and objectives related to climate change and reducing their direct and indirect GHG emissions;
Whereas: Financial support for emissions-intensive activities and businesses is the most significant impact Wells Fargo has regarding climate change; Whereas: Loans, lines of credit, leases, and other multi-year credit guarantees made by the Company to a variety of industry clients (electric utilities, commercial real estate, home builders, oil and gas and coal companies, agricultural companies, and auto manufacturers) may be at risk of default because of the long-term consequences of climate change and global GHG regulations; Whereas: Wells Fargo is the USA’s “#1 agricultural lender among all banks,” “#1 mortgage lender to home builders,” and “one of the USA’s leading commercial real estate lenders among all banks” according to its website; Whereas: JPMorgan Chase (JPMC) works with its largest GHG-emitting clients to develop carbon mitigation plans–including emissions disclosure, offsets, renewable energy investments, and GHG reduction goals–by quantifying the costs of emissions and internalizing those into the analysis of power sector transactions; in 2006, JPMC began reporting the GHG footprint of its power sector portfolio to develop new financial products to facilitate emissions reductions, and is building a commodities trading business for NOX, SO2 and CO2 trading; Whereas: Bank of America has committed to reporting and verifying its emissions from operations AND its public energy and utility portfolio, and reducing those emissions by 7% by 2008;
Whereas: Wachovia, JPMC, and Bank of America commit to engaging in national public policy discussions on climate regulations and renewable energy; Whereas: Citigroup began reporting on CO2 emissions from power projects it finances in 2003;
Whereas: Citigroup, Bank of America, JPMC, Goldman Sachs, and HSBC have set quantitative targets to reduce direct CO2 emissions, while they, and Wachovia and ABN-AMRO, have adopted a company-wide policy on climate change; Whereas: HSBC pledged to become carbon-neutral by the end of 2006 and met that goal early;
Whereas: While Wells Fargo’s “10-Point Environmental Commitment” has made some progress on reducing emissions from internal operations through conservation measures and offsets, it lacks a comprehensive, strategic approach and well-established goals for reducing both direct emissions from operations and indirect emissions from its GHG-intensive clients; Resolved: That stockholders of Wells Fargo & Company request that the Board of Directors formulate comprehensive emissions reduction goals relating to (a) the Company’s own operations and (b) the activities of its corporate borrowers, advisory and project finance clients, and the companies whose securities Wells Fargo underwrites. The goals and the extent of the Company’s progress in meeting them should be disclosed to shareholders by October 2007 and annually thereafter, at reasonable cost and omitting proprietary information.