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ESG-related shareholder proposals break record (2024)
| Environmental, social, and corporate governance |
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| • What is ESG? • Enacted ESG legislation • Arguments for and against ESG • Opposition to ESG • Federal ESG rules • ESG legislation tracker • Economy and Society: Ballotpedia's weekly ESG newsletter |
The number of ESG-related shareholder proposals submitted during the annual general meeting (AGM) season—both for and against ESG—set a new record this year:
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Investors’ ESG and anti-ESG proposals at AGMs have broken records so far in 2024, increasing by 5.2 percent on 2023’s numbers. Anti-ESG proposals drive the overall new trend, rising by 19 percent from 94 in 2023 to 113 in 2024 and marking a notable 90 percent increase on 2022. This is according to preliminary data from Georgeson’s early proxy season 2024 review, based on available annual meeting results gathered from July 2023 through May 2024.[1] |
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Meanwhile, despite the record number of proposals, investor support for both sides continued to decrease:
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Public companies dealt with a high number of shareholder proposals this proxy season but few that went to a vote passed and fewer than a handful of hot-button E&S proposals received a majority vote, a Freshfields analysis shows. There were 945 proposals submitted since the beginning of the year, through mid-June, with the bulk of those concentrated in just under 300 companies. Amazon was the strongest magnet for activist shareholders, attracting 18 proposals, compared to a typical 2-3 proposals each among S&P 500 companies. Of the 945 proposals, only 53 received majority support, and all but a handful of those were bread-and-butter governance related. The rest either didn’t reach majority support or they never made it to a vote, either because they were omitted after having been granted a no-action request by the Securities and Exchange Commission, were withdrawn by the shareholders making the proposal or otherwise not included on the proxy. Some are still pending a vote.[1] |
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See also
- Environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG)
- Economy and Society: Ballotpedia's ESG newsletter
External links
Footnotes
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