San Ramon, CA – At Chevron’s virtual Annual General Meeting this morning, shareholders, frontline communities, and activists worldwide turned up the pressure on the oil giant for its egregious record on human rights, climate, and corporate accountability.
In a clear sign of growing investor dissent, 25% of shareholders voted in favor of lowering the threshold to call a special meeting to 10% (representing approximately 436 million shares, valued at around $60 billion). This is substantially higher than the threshold of 5% to 10% support usually garnered by shareholder resolutions not supported by management, a move aimed at bolstering oversight amid escalating reputational risk. Meanwhile, 11% voted in support of a shareholder resolution calling for an independent third-party report on Chevron’s human rights practices – a resolution prompted by the company’s ongoing refusal to take responsibility for its toxic legacy in Ecuador.
“Chevron’s key legal witness, Alberto Guerra, admitted under oath that he lied in court and was paid nearly half a million dollars after being coached more than 50 times by Gibson Dunn, Chevron’s law firm,” said Alec Baldwin, who presented Proposal #7 on behalf of Newground Social Investment. “CEO Mike Wirth still refuses to explain how much shareholder money has funded this disgraceful retaliation against Indigenous peoples and their lawyer, Steven Donziger.” Wirth also declined to answer questions at the shareholder meeting about why he and Chevron have refused to respond to direct questions from the U.S. House Oversight Committee about the company’s $50 billion in debts to affected communities worldwide.
Kichwa leader Leo Cerda, speaking on behalf of the Franciscan Sisters of Allegany, echoed the call for accountability:
“Chevron came in, extracted oil, poisoned the land and water, and then walked away. Entire communities were left to face the consequences of corporate negligence. This is a human rights crisis – one where lives were devalued, voices ignored, and justice denied.”
Chevron CEO Mike Wirth responded to the human rights proposal by calling them “unsubstantiated” (despite references to 19 independent sources in the resolution materials) and with false claims that the $9.5 billion Ecuadorian judgment against Chevron had been “definitively rejected by the courts” – despite the fact that Ecuador’s Constitutional Court upheld the verdict and Chevron refused to pay, instead pursuing retaliatory legal tactics in the U.S. Once again, Wirth declined to address how Chevron justifies its payments to Guerra or the broader implications of its actions in Ecuador.
Notably absent from today’s AGM was any mention of the recent decision by the Swiss National Bank to sell its entire stake in Chevron because it now considers investments in the stock to breach its portfolio guidelines. The decision, revealed just one day prior, adds to growing global condemnation and investor concern, yet Chevron’s leadership offered no acknowledgment. This omission highlights the company’s continued refusal to address the full scope of its liabilities or the mounting financial consequences of its misconduct.
Chevron also refused to respond to growing calls to boycott the company for its operation and co-ownership of Israeli-claimed fossil gas fields off the coast of occupied Palestinian land. CEO Wirth had no response to widespread protests held across the globe on May 21, 2025 – Global Anti-Chevron Day, marking the twelfth consecutive year of coordinated action. In fact, today, protests continue in Ecuador, where communities represented by the Union of People Affected by Texaco (UDAPT) are demonstrating against a recent investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) tribunal award in Chevron’s favor. They are demanding that the Ecuadorian government reject the award and finally hold Chevron accountable for its pollution.
Quotes
“Shareholders need to understand they’re receiving dirty money – profits that are ill-gotten gains. This isn’t clean money generated by legitimate business practices. It comes from the suffering of people impacted by Chevron’s wrongdoing. The $9.5 billion debt Chevron owes isn’t for lawyers or individual compensation, as the company claims. It’s a court-ordered amount to clean up the soil, water, and sediment in the Amazon, and to support the cultural recovery of the Cofán, Siona, Siekopai, Waorani, Kichwa, and Achuar peoples whose lives and territories have been devastated by Chevron’s oil operations,” said Donald Moncayo, President of the Union of Peoples Affected by Chevron/Texaco in Ecuador (UDAPT), upon visiting the site of Chevron’s Richmond refinery just prior the shareholder’s meeting on the 12th annual Global Anti-Chevron Day.
“Chevron continues to bury its head in the sand,” said Paul Paz y Miño of Amazon Watch. “Rather than listen to affected communities, courts, and now even shareholders, the company doubles down on disinformation and impunity. Chevron CEO Mike Wirth continues his racist allegations that courts and judges in Ecuador are not valid and can be dismissed as proponents of ‘baseless allegation’ when in fact the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled unanimously that efforts to seek enforcement of the Ecuadorian judgment are valid. Regardless, the global movement against Chevron’s abuses is growing, and we will not stop until justice is served.”
“Chevron’s farce in Ecuador’s court system has gone on for far too long. While Indigenous peoples and farmer communities continue to suffer and die because of the company’s Chernobyl-level pollution, Chevron executives flout the rule of law and refuse to comply with court judgments that its billions of gallons of toxic waste dumped on ancestral lands be cleaned up. Amazon communities face extinction because of Chevron’s pollution while the company delivers record profits to its shareholders and executives. It’s unconscionable. All pension funds and investors should divest from the company immediately until it complies with the rule of law and conducts itself in a way that respects our planet,” said human rights attorney Steven Donziger.
