ESG proposals flounder in 2023 annual meeting season (2023)
| Environmental, social, and corporate governance |
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Last week, Bloomberg published the results of a tally kept on shareholder proposal votes this year by the ESG-focused group Sustainable Investments Institute. The results were not what supporters of ESG were hoping for:
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Investor support for environmental and social shareholder proposals slumped to the lowest in six years amid the Republican backlash against sustainable investing. Average backing for resolutions focused on climate change, workers’ rights, diversity and corporate governance declined this year to about 22% at annual shareholder meetings, down from a peak of 33% in 2021, according to a tally of votes compiled by the Sustainable Investments Institute through Thursday. Support hasn’t been this low since 2017. “That’s just striking,” said Heidi Welsh, who runs Sustainable Investments and has been monitoring shareholder votes for more than three decades. Republican opposition to ESG initiatives has become a “wrecking ball,” she said. “It’s across the board that support has dropped.” Corporate annual meetings have become the latest front in the GOP-led movement against environmental, social and governance investing, with more and more asset managers avoiding topics like climate change, gender and racial diversity. Shareholders also have become more cautious about how they vote amid concerns they’ll be blacklisted by Republican officials from doing business in their states. Pressure has been growing since March when asset managers were warned by a group of state attorneys general that Americans’ savings shouldn’t be used to “push political goals.” The biggest opposition has focused on environmental initiatives, followed by human capital management and human rights, the Sustainable Investments analysis shows. Issues related to questions about political activity and health care, such as Covid drug pricing and access, had smaller declines. The number of ESG proposals that went to a vote fell to 240 from a peak of 283 last year.[1] |
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See also
- Environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG)
- Economy and Society: Ballotpedia's ESG newsletter
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
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