Tomorrow's annual meeting of ExxonMobil is shaping up to deliver a landmark battle in the fight for increased shareholder rights with regards to the environment, after a libertarian activist tabled a new resolution designed to silence the oil giant's green critics.

ExxonMobil is facing a package of four shareholder resolutions designed to force the company to invest more heavily in renewable energy, draw up a more coherent climate change policy and split the role of chief executive and chairman. The resolutions were tabled by descendants of the company's founder John D Rockefeller and have secured support from many big US and UK institutional investors, including several of America's largest pension funds.

However, a libertarian activist has hit back at the move, tabling a rival resolution that would block future social activism from shareholders.

The resolution has been put forward by Steven Milloy, managing partner of the Free Enterprise Action Fund, an investment fund which controls $11m (£5.5m) of assets and is described as the first libertarian activist mutual fund.

The resolution states that "the purpose of such proposals [as the Rockefellers'] is to harass and intimidate the company into actions that it would not ordinarily undertake and that, in fact, may be harmful to the company and bona fide shareholders".

If accepted, the resolution would require Exxon to change its articles of association to prevent its shareholders putting forward advisory resolutions at annual meetings.

Speaking to the Daily Telegraph, Milloy insisted that the dissident shareholders were acting against the company's best interests. "We believe that activist shareholders – such as the Rockefellers – are looking to advance their political agenda through Exxon rather than to increase shareholder value," he said.

Exxon's management has stopped short of endorsing Milloy's resolution, but is known to oppose the Rockefeller-led rebellion and has placed Milloy's proposals first on the list of shareholder resolutions to be heard.

Paul Dickinson, chief executive of corporate governance lobby group the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) insisted that it was entirely legitimate for shareholders to express concerns over firms' climate change policies. "You could argue that with some local environmental issues it is an issue best handled by a company's management," he said. "But climate change is a global issue with serious global implications and as such it is quite legitimate to have an interest in a firm's response."