Exxon Board Fight Escalates Over Company's Stance On Climate Change

The conflict reflects pressure mounted by consumers and government officials over the global environmental crisis.

NEW YORK (AP) — ExxonMobil is facing a major challenge from a group of investors in one of the biggest fights a corporate boardroom has endured over its stance on climate change, an issue of rising urgency for many shareholders. The investor group is pushing to replace four of the oil giant’s board members with executives they say are better suited to both strengthen the company’s finances and lead it through the transition to cleaner energy. The fight represents a moment of reckoning for major publicly traded companies to address a global crisis. Engine No. 1, the name of the hedge fund that has mounted the challenge, owns just a sliver of Exxon’s shares. But the dissident slate of board members it has put forward commands the backing of some of the country’s most powerful institutional investors, including the largest public pension funds.