BP shareholders delivered a significant rebuke to the company’s leadership during the oil major’s annual general meeting last week, voting down two management-backed resolutions on climate disclosure and virtual meetings while handing new chair Albert Manifold a strikingly weak election result.

Some 53% of BP investors voted against a management proposal to scrap two previously approved shareholder resolutions: one from 2015, relating to climate reporting, and another from 2019, relating to strategic alignment with the goals of the Paris climate agreement. A similar proportion of investors also rejected a management proposal to replace in-person annual shareholder meetings with a virtual format, a move widely perceived as a blow to shareholder rights.

Receiving about 47% support in each case, the two resolutions fell “far short” of the required 75% to pass, reported CNBC.

Shareholders also registered dissatisfaction with Manifold, who assumed the role of chair in October, 2025. Just under 82% of shareholders voted in favour of his election —“a clear rebuke as directors typically receive approvals close to 100%,” reported Bloomberg News.

A significant factor driving the blowback against Manifold was BP’s decision to exclude from the agenda a resolution filed by Follow This, a Dutch climate activist shareholder group known for buying up shares in oil and gas companies in order to influence decision making. The Follow This resolution requested disclosure on how BP would create shareholder value under a scenario of declining demand for oil and gas.

Shell recently accepted a similar resolution, and will be presenting it to shareholders at its AGM in May.

Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM), one of Europe’s biggest asset managers and BP’s eighth-largest shareholder, said in advance of the vote that it would be opposing Manifold’s election, with influential proxy adviser Glass Lewis & Co. recommending the same.

Railpen, the sustainability-focused investment manager for the United Kingdom’s £34 billion (US$46 billion) Railways Pension Scheme, also signalled its intent to vote against Manifold, reported UK-based market analyst This is Money.

Reuters writes that the AGM marked the first major test for a company that has staked its future on a multi-billion-dollar return to oil and gas after a failed venture to move “beyond petroleum” and into renewables. Driving the pro-fossil fuel direction, some investors believe the company stands to benefit from elevated energy prices, with the United States-Israeli war on Iran paving the way for record profits.

Norway’s $2.2 trillion sovereign wealth fund, the world’s largest, and activist U.S. hedge fund Elliott Investment Management—both BP investor heavyweights— supported Manifold’s election, with Elliott declaring the new chair “a positive catalyst ‌for change.”

Nearly 26% of shareholders disagreed, backing a resolution tabled by the climate group Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility (ACCR) that called upon the company to “justify its capital discipline on oil and gas investments,” reports CNBC. The vote is sufficient to require BP to consult shareholders on the matter and report back.

“This collective show of force puts the new BP leadership team on notice: the company must show its planned surge in upstream investment can deliver shareholder value,” Nick Mazan, ACCR oil and gas strategy lead, told CNBC.