Oil and gas producer Santos set out a pathway to investors to reach net zero emissions by 2040 without having the modelling and measures that backed up its pledge, an activist shareholder group has argued in the Federal Court.

In the case brought by the Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility, the activist group’s barrister Noel Hutley, SC, said Santos’ plan for reaching carbon neutrality was no more than “a series of speculations” that had been hastily cobbled together and lacked a solid basis.