Danish pension fund PenSam and the U.K.’s Greater Manchester Pension Fund (GMPF) are backing a shareholder resolution asking U.S. oil producer ConocoPhillips to be more transparent about its tax practices.
Last week, Oxfam America said it would file a shareholder resolution for ConocoPhillips’ next annual meeting in March 2023 demanding a report detailing its tax practices around the world. This stems from concerns that ConocoPhillips and other oil giants may be engaging in aggressive tax avoidance.
With the historic tax agreements of recent years, the world’s democratic countries have established how important common rules of the game in the tax field are for the global economy – and not least to combat companies’ use of tax tricks,” said PenSam CEO Torsten Fels in a statement. PenSam and GMPF are co-filers of the motion.
The Danish labor-market pension fund claimed that there were indications of irresponsible tax practice at ConocoPhillips. “We cannot live with companies like ConocoPhillips running away from their tax bill while people everywhere struggle with inflation, the climate crisis and rising poverty,” said Fels.
“Exxon, Chevron, and ConocoPhillips’s threadbare tax disclosures leave investors, watchdog groups, and the general public in the dark about the companies’ secretive tax practices,” said Daniel Mulé, policy lead on extractive industries and tax at Oxfam America.