Investors switch to backing key US climate votes, but Blackrock still only selectively
‘Large investment groups including BlackRock and Vanguard have stepped up pressure on US energy companies to address the risks associated with climate change, despite the Trump administration’s lack of action to address the threat. … In votes at seven of the largest US energy companies this year, the 30 largest investors switched their votes to support disclosure on climate risk a total of 38 times, having opposed similar resolutions in 2016, according to ShareAction, a campaign group.’ (Financial Times, 1 Oct).
‘Using data from Proxy Insight, the report (pdf, 25 pages) is the first analysis of how major investors voted during the 2017 US proxy season in seven high-carbon companies on shareholder resolutions addressing climate-related risk management. …
Many large US asset managers, such as BNY Mellon, American Century, and Dimensional Investors, continued in 2017 to give corporate management of high-carbon companies their apparently uncritical support. (ShareAction press note, 2 Oct). Bloomberg summarise the changes in graph below.
In a related report, 5050 Climate published a summary report scoring the top 30 asset managers on their US climate resolution voting. In a response to the FT story, Preventable Surprises’ Carolyn Hayman notes that ‘While BlackRock and Vanguard are waking up to risk on the supply side (ExxonMobil and Occidental), they have ignored the demand side, the utilities that remain wedded to fossil fuels when clean alternatives exist,’ voting against all nine US energy utilities that faced shareholder resolutions on 2C scenario planning in 2017. (FT, 9 Oct)
BlackRock and Vanguard’s climate change efforts are glacial: FTfm’s investment correspondent Attracta Mooney writes that ‘one year ago, the world’s largest asset manager [Blackrock] issued a stark warning about global warming. “Investors can no longer ignore climate change.” … ‘Yet just a few months later, BlackRock appeared to forget its own warning, [voting] against so-called scenario-planning climate change resolutions, which are typically put forward by shareholders and often not supported by management, at 14 oil and gas companies, including Southern Company, Noble Energy and Hess. It backed the measures at just two, the big oil majors ExxonMobil and Occidental.’ (FTfm, 15 Oct)
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