Shell has asked its shareholders to support a resolution on climate change following a lobbying campaign by major charitable investors.

The energy company’s support for the resolution represents a victory for the ‘Aiming for A’ coalition, which includes a group of more than 50 UK-based charities and church groups, as well as asset managers led by Rathbone Greenbank Investments and CCLA.

The move is the latest instance of an increasing tendency among charitable trusts and foundations to use the power of their votes as shareholders to influence the behaviour of multinational companies.

Activism charities ShareAction and ClientEarth assisted the Aiming for A coalition to file resolutions with both BP and Shell to force them to implement policies within their businesses that respond to the threats posed by climate change.

One such demand calls on the companies to stress-test their business models against the requirement to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius, as agreed by governments at the UN Climate Change Conference in 2010.

Others included reform of their bonus systems so that climate-damaging activities are not rewarded; commitments to reduce emissions and invest in renewable energy, and to disclose how their public policy plans align with climate change mitigation and risk.

Catherine Howarth, chief executive of ShareAction, described Shell’s move to urge shareholders to support the resolution as a “turning point” which demonstrated the power of activist strategies to deal with climate change.

She added that Shell’s support “throws down the gauntlet to BP”, which has so far merely said it is “carefully considering” the resolutions.

Shell shareholders will vote on the resolutions at their AGM in May, a month after the BP AGM.  In order for them to be adopted, 75 per cent of shareholders must support them.  Howarth said the next stage of the campaign was to persuade the companies’ shareholders to vote in favour.