By Shadia Nasralla
LONDON, April 4 (Reuters) - Influential proxy adviser Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) has recommended a vote against the BP board's move to revoke some previous climate reporting resolutions, according to a note seen by Reuters.
It is relatively rare for large shareholder advisory groups such as ISS, whose recommendations guide huge chunks of shareholder votes at annual general meetings, to ask investors to vote against the board's wishes.
BP's board has called for a vote
at its April 23 meeting to retire two resolutions from 2015 and 2019 requiring company-specific climate reporting.
"A particularly compelling argument would be required to justify such a legal revocation, which we believe is unprecedented in the UK context," ISS said in its analysis explaining the recommendation published late on Friday.
BP needs at least 75% shareholder support to scrap the commitments, which were approved with nearly 100% support at the time.
"We do not consider the Board's argument that the prior resolutions detract from the clarity of reporting and standardised disclosures to constitute a sufficiently compelling case to offset the concerns for 'retiring' the relevant disclosures," it said.
BP's board has said the requirements targeted by its proposal have largely been superseded by mandatory disclosure frameworks that provide more comparable data.
It would still report climate data according to broader frameworks such as the Task Force on climate-related Financial Disclosures and climate-related Financial Disclosure Regulations, the company has said.
The recommendation by ISS follows a broadening climate campaign against BP by some European investors, representing less than 0.5% of the company's owners, which has been led by Dutch activist shareholder group Follow This.
ISS is also calling for shareholders to vote against a measure that would allow BP to hold online-only shareholder meetings.
(Reporting by Shadia Nasralla; Editing by Alison Williams and Joe Bavier)
