Shareholder proposals relating to ESG matters are frequent targets for exclusion by companies, and based upon a survey of the no-action letters submitted during the 2019 proxy season, this trend continues. Over 40% of the no-action letters we reviewed for the 2019 proxy season related to a variety of ESG matters, and the arguments and…
Tag: esg
Has ESG Gone Mainstream?
A new report from Ethical Corporation argues that ESG’s rapidly increasing acceptance is based on understanding that it is about managing risk. “ESG will become much more a part of mainstream investing over the next ten years,” says Carlo Funk, EMEA head of ESG strategy at State Street Global Advisors. “It will move from being…
Potential Impact of New SEC Guidance on Performance Metrics on Disclosure of ESG Metrics
For years, investors have been advocating for public companies to disclose key ESG metrics in a manner that investors view as comparable, decision-useful and verifiable, whether in SEC filings (which many investors prefer due to the rigor associated with the SEC reporting process) or voluntary sustainability reports. All of the leading voluntary ESG frameworks, including…
Jupiter Backs Barclays Shareholder Resolution on Climate Change – Bloomberg
Jupiter Asset Management has thrown its weight behind a shareholder campaign urging Barclays Plc to set out how it will stop financing energy firms that don’t align with the Paris Agreement climate goals. The London-based fund manager joins around a dozen institutions including Amundi SA to back what supporters say is the first climate change…
Wall Street Backs Away From Arctic Drilling Amid Alaska Political Heat – The New York Times
Three big U.S. banks have publicly announced break-ups with Arctic drilling in recent months, reflecting Wall Street’s increasing desire to cast itself as environmentally friendly amid a political firestorm in Alaska. Banks and investment managers have been backing away from fossil-fuel development in the face of worsening climate change and pressure from activists, even as…
Shareholder seeks reparations for slave-built railroad
A new category for ESG — the first-ever shareholder proposal calling for reparations from a company with a history of slave labor going back to the 19th century. In the first proposal of its kind, a shareholder is requesting a report from railroad company CSX on how it would go about paying reparations for the…
ESG Funds Might Soon Have to Prove to SEC They’re Actually ESG – Bloomberg
On one hand, we are concerned that ESG is the new dot.com, the new buzzword everyone is using to make sales without any underlying reality. On the other hand, the SEC’s disgraceful proposals on corporate governance and willingness to be swayed by fake front groups funded by fossil fuel corporations make us skeptical of the…
ESG Performance and the Credit Markets
Joshua A. Feltman and Emily D. Johnson, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz write: Over time, we expect companies to find their cost of capital more directly tied to their ESG risk, which firms are lining up to help investors evaluate. All of the major credit ratings agencies have signed onto the Principles for Responsible Investment…
BlackRock’s Vow for Greener Planet to Get First Real-World Test – Bloomberg
Fink, who built the company from a mortgage-bond specialist into the largest asset manager in the world, has a crew of just a few dozen to prod the thousands of companies in BlackRock’s $7 trillion of funds to toe a more environmentally friendly line. With the annual proxy season set to kick off in earnest next month, when shareholders get…
Business Roundtable members face challenge over commitments | Financial Times
Companies including Goldman Sachs and BlackRock will be forced to confront accusations of hypocrisy at their upcoming shareholder meetings from investors challenging commitments made by corporate America to consider the environment and their workers alongside profitability. The companies are among members of the Business Roundtable, one of the largest business lobbying groups in the US, which…
