Church of England to vote against National Grid heads over lobbying

The Church of England (CofE) Pensions Board is to vote against the re-election of the UK National Grid’s chair, Paula Rosput Reynolds, and chief executive John Pettigrew, due to an alleged failure to produce disclosure on the company’s lobbying activities on climate change.

The National Grid owns and operates electricity and natural gas transmission networks across the UK as well as parts of the United States. 

According to an assessment by InfluenceMap, which looks at the lobbying practices of companies and industry associations on climate change, the organisation is active in lobbying on weakening climate policy, particularly in the US.

However, InfluenceMap also found that European utilities which have subsidiary operations in the US such as the National Grid and Iberdrola (Spain), were both more climate positive in their policies than their US-based operations National Grid USA and Avangrid.

Laura Hillis, director for climate and environment at the CofE Pensions Board, said: “National Grid has been a Climate Action 100+ focus company for five years, and as part of this, has been urged by shareholders including the Pensions Board, to produce regular, transparent disclosures on their own climate policy positions and that of their industry associations.

“Unfortunately, despite repeated efforts to engage this company on this issue, they have not yet committed to produce a report. 

The company is now one of only two European utilities engaged by Climate Action 100+ to have failed to provide its investors with this disclosure.”

The CofE Pensions Board will also vote against a resolution, put forward by National Grid management, requesting shareholder support to make large political donations, up to £125,000. The National Grid AGM is due to take place on 10 July in London, UK.

The CofE Pensions Board is one of a group of investors which developed the Global Standard on Responsible Climate Lobbying, which looks to provide a clear set of best-practice indicators companies can apply to report on their climate policy and industry association activities.

Speaking to Net Zero Investor on upcoming asset owner approaches, Adam Matthews, chief responsible investment officer at the CofE Pensions Board, said: “You'll see a much greater focus on investor engagement with the demand side but also on lobbying, as ultimately enabling a policy environment for the transition is critical.”