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Investors concerned about climate change have developed an effective playbook for companies to set more ambitious targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by suppressing, embarrassing and persuading executives.

But these tactics aren’t working on Warren Buffett and the Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate, which owns energy companies, a railroad, insurance companies, and other businesses that pump massive amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. As Mr Buffett argues, critics complain that Berkshire’s businesses are doing less to reduce emissions than comparable companies.

Mr. Buffett has repeatedly resisted shareholders who want Berkshire to provide detailed climate disclosures covering not just a part of the company, but the entire company, and to spend more on sustainability. His stance may seem strange to some people, given that he supports progressive causes at times. high taxes on the rich. There is room has pledged to give almost all of his wealthand gave billions to causes adopted by the left.

Mr Buffett argued that subsidiaries such as Berkshire Hathaway Energy have disclosed a lot of information about their emissions and are spending billions of dollars on renewable energy.

“I don’t think they read our annual reports,” said Mr. Buffett, referring to the shareholder group at last year’s meeting.

Berkshire and its energy subsidiary declined to comment for this article.

Despite Mr. Buffett’s insistence that his businesses are doing much to combat climate change, the company’s energy subsidiary in particular has set weaker targets for carbon emissions than other utility companies such as Duke Energy and Dominion Energy.

“They lag behind their screens,” said Dan Bakal, senior program director at Ceres, a nonprofit group that works with investors and companies on environmental issues.

The conflict between climate activists and Mr Buffett will likely flare up again next weekend at Berkshire’s annual meeting – a no-nonsense event often referred to as “Woodstock for Capitalists”. Shareholders will vote on a proposal from dissident investors asking Berkshire to overhaul how it views climate risks and other environmental measures.

The offer, like last year, is non-binding and will likely be rejected as Mr. Buffett owns private shares that give him more votes than other shareholders.

But it could still be embarrassing for Mr. Buffett if the vote count shows that most shareholders disagree with him.

Activist investors claim that last year’s proposals garnered majority support among many shareholders, including major investment firms such as BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street, which are not part of Mr. longstanding ties with

Some analysts who follow the company say they are not surprised that Mr. Buffett opposes the climate change proposal, as they have long felt that Berkshire has not disclosed enough details about its corporate empire.

“It’s just a continuation of a corporate style and an outdated corporate style,” said Cathy Seifert, an analyst at CFRA Research, who follows Berkshire. “And I think we’ll see how obsolete it gets with shareholder votes.”

Activist investors said if they got in the way of Mr. Buffett, so were they. Their playbook is well sharpened and relatively simple. First, they try to force companies to rigorously estimate and explain their carbon emissions, on the principle that you can’t improve what you don’t measure. When companies find out roughly how much carbon they emit, activists press them to publish a plan to reduce emissions over the medium and long term. Companies can then be prosecuted against these plans and more pressure can be applied when businesses fail to meet targets.

So far, activists have stuck with Mr Buffett in the first phase – Berkshire does not disclose its comprehensive emissions across their businesses, although some subsidiaries such as Berkshire Hathaway Energy provide some information. Others, such as insurance companies that invest in companies that can produce and consume fossil fuels, give little detail on their impact on the planet.

While companies are taking measures to be greener, they have committed to reducing emissions from their own operations and from the power plants from which they purchase electricity. Some go even further and aim to reduce the carbon footprint of their suppliers and customers, known as Scope 3 emissions.

The gold standard for climate commitments is to reach “net zero” – meaning that a company no longer emits greenhouse gases overall, including those from the supply chain and the use of its products by customers. Many businesses hope to get to this point by switching to renewable energy and finding ways to offset the carbon dioxide they still emit, such as planting trees and capturing carbon directly from the air.

As more companies publish details of their emissions and plans, it becomes easier to compare businesses.

Climate Action 100+, an investor-backed group that monitors the climate commitments of the largest institutional emitters, last year launched Berkshire Hathaway’s did not meet any of the group’s criteria. It found that it met or partially met at least some of the criteria of other major US companies.

For example, three major power utilities – Duke, Dominion and Xcel Energy – aim to reduce some of their Scope 3 emissions. But Berkshire Hathaway Energy has not pledged to reduce its Scope 3 emissions.

“Both Duke and Dominion are now leading energy companies on this front,” said Danielle Fugere, president of shareholder advocacy group As You Sow, which represents investors in recent shareholder proposals on climate change in these companies. The bids were withdrawn after the companies renewed their climate plans.

In reaching net zero, Berkshire Hathaway Energy uses looser language than other utilities, saying “By 2050 it strives to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions that our customers can afford, our regulators will allow, and technological advances will support.” Xcel Energy and Duke Energy They said they are committed to achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Because net-zero target dates are decades away—usually 2050—many investors also want companies to set intermediate targets. According to Berkshire’s latest annual report, Berkshire Hathaway Energy aims to halve its greenhouse gas emissions from 2005 levels by 2030. Over the same period, Xcel Energy plans an 80 percent reduction in emissions from its electricity operations.

“This is a step in the right direction,” said Mr. Bakal of Ceres, of Berkshire Hathaway Energy’s tentative target, “but it doesn’t even come close to what the leading companies are doing.”

Berkshire may soon have to make the broader climate disclosures that dissident shareholders want. Securities and Exchange Commission suggested a rule require public companies to provide standard climate reporting. But the rule will likely face legal challenges and could be diluted or overturned by the courts.

Rebel Berkshire shareholders include the California Public Employees Pension System and the New Jersey pension fund, and they can likely count on the backing of index mutual fund giants BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street again.

Berkshire counters, saying the shareholder group’s claim that it won a majority among outside shareholders last year is “false”, but the company has declined to disclose detailed vote counts to support its claim.

A potential wild card is how the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation voted for the large block of Berkshire shares that Mr. Buffett has donated to the nonprofit over the years. Mr. Gates can be expected to back his longtime friend Mr. Buffett in a tough shareholder vote. But Mr Gates has made climate change a priority in recent years.

Berkshire shares, owned by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust Incremental Investment. Foundation representatives and Cascade declined to comment.

While the activists are disappointed that Mr. Buffett refused to accept their demands, they argue that their repression has had an effect. For example, Berkshire’s latest annual report There is a section written by Greg Abel, head of Berkshire Hathaway Energy, detailing some of the subsidiary’s climate-related efforts.

Despite this, activists say they will continue to pressure Mr. Buffett to publish comprehensive climate disclosures and risk assessments for the entire holding.

“They have $130 billion in cash,” said Timothy Youmans, EOS manager at Federated Hermes in North America, which sponsors the climate proposal that Berkshire shareholders will vote on. “Spend some money, please, and put it all together.”