On and after May 10, 2021, Sempra Energy intends to send the following email correspondence to certain
of its shareholders regarding matters to be voted upon at its 2021 Annual Shareholders Meeting.
Dear [Shareholder]:
We appreciate the ongoing opportunity to engage with you concerning our goal to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 on
scopes one, two and three, our action plan framework to do so, and our related disclosure practices, including our climate-lobbying disclosure. As you are aware, this year Sempra received a shareholder proposal (Proposal 5) requesting a report on
alignment of our lobbying activities (direct and through trade associations) with the Paris Agreement. As described in our proxy statement beginning on page 40, we believe our existing lobbying disclosures, including the board-evaluated report
addressing alignment of these activities with the Paris Agreement (posted on the “Political Engagement and Contributions” section of our website), provide all material information needed by our investors to understand and evaluate the
extent and scope of our lobbying activities as they relate to climate. As a result, the disclosure requested by the proposal would be duplicative and unnecessary. To the extent that more detailed disclosure is deemed helpful by stakeholders, we
believe that a standardized disclosure template to be used by trade associations, as described below, would lead to more consistent and useful climate-related lobbying disclosure.
Climate-Related Lobbying Disclosure
In evaluating their
role in the global energy transition, companies may consider how their activities align with the Paris Agreement, including their direct and indirect (through trade associations) lobbying activities. Without the use of disclosure standards or
frameworks by trade associations to share their climate positions and related lobbying activities, individual member companies conducting their own alignment reviews must independently evaluate and characterize trade associations’ respective
policy positions. As a result, different companies may characterize a single association’s climate position, policies and activities in very different ways, and investors may not gain consistent insights.
An Alternative Solution: A Standardized Disclosure Template for Trade Associations
We believe there is an opportunity to promote meaningful, uniform disclosure standards for trade associations engaged in energy policy matters to disclose
their climate positions and related lobbying activities and, in turn, to support companies’ evaluations of how those positions and activities align with their own.
Sempra Energy intends to work to advance a standardized disclosure template for use by trade associations for the purpose of sharing their climate positions
and related lobbying activities. We believe that annual completion of a standardized disclosure template by trade associations would better enable companies to consistently evaluate the alignment of their own climate positions with those of the
trade associations, and would also enable investors to more easily evaluate that alignment.
Next Steps:
|
1.
|
Starting in Q2 2021, Sempra plans to engage with its trade associations that are involved in energy policy
matters and certain peer member companies for the purpose of advancing a standardized template for these trade associations to use in disclosing their climate positions and related lobbying activities.
|