Dec 4 (Reuters) - The Church of England said it was in theprocess of filing shareholder resolutions on climate change atBP Plc and Royal Dutch Shell Plc.
"The resolution is intended to challenge the companies torun their businesses so that they participate constructively inthe transition to a low carbon economy", The Church of Englandwrote in a blog. (http://bit.ly/1tUBUlN)
The Church said it chose BP and Shell because they have thebiggest carbon footprints of all the companies listed on theLondon Stock Exchange.
The initiative is lead by CCLA Investment Management, whichmanages over 1.5 billion pounds ($2.35 billion) of Church ofEngland money in the CBF Church of England funds.
The Church said supporters of the resolution include the 150billion pound Local Authorities Pension Fund Forum, CCLAInvestment Management, the Methodist church and Rathbone GreenBank.
The Church said it was hopeful that "a large proportion ofother shareholders will agree when it comes to the vote at theBP and Shell annual general meetings next spring".
The Church of England, mother church of the world's 80million Anglicans, holds total investments worth about 8 billionpounds ($13 billion) that are used to pay clergy pensions andfund the church's work.
Some is invested in funds but the church also has directinvestments of more than 10 million pounds in Shell, BP , RioTinto and BHP Billiton.
Shell said it was aware of the resolution but did not wantto comment further. BP was not immediately available.($1 = 0.6381 pounds) (Reporting by Shivam Srivastava in Bangalore; Editing by DanGrebler)
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