Reuters has reported that shareholders of ExxonMobil and Chevron have “overwhelmingly rejected” over a dozen proposals to strengthen measures to mitigate climate change at their recent annual meetings.

Activist shareholder groups such as Follow This (which represents around 9,500 individual shareholders) had put forward the proposals to the meetings, which were held online, perhaps as a means to dampen activism. The proposals included initiatives such as requesting Exxon to set medium-term goals for Scope 3 emissions (such as from fuels burned by customers) – Exxon is the only of the Western oil majors not to have such a goal – though this initiative also involved reducing hydrocarbon sales, something shareholders may have balked at considering the current high prices for hydrocarbons.

Other proposals voted down by Exxon shareholders included additional direct measurements of methane, establishing a new board committee on decarbonisation risk, greenhouse gas emissions reporting on an adjusted basis, and an energy transition social impact report; support for such measures typically ranged between 10-25%. Similar proposals were rejected by Chevron’s shareholders, including reporting on worker and community impact from facility closures and energy transitions.

Support for the climate initiatives, Reuters reports, was generally lower than in recent years, with this being attributed to worries over oil and gas supply following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.