The world’s largest asset managers are failing to vote for sustainable progress in investee companies, despite public commitments to the contrary. Only 15 out of 102 shareholder resolutions on climate and social issues received majority support from asset managers over the past year, according to research from ShareAction, which analysed the voting decisions of 60 of the world’s largest asset managers from September 2019 to August 2020. BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street Global Advisors (SSGA) have been termed “crucial laggards”, with the first two houses supporting fewer than 15% of climate and social resolutions analysed. The study found that had just one of these three managers changed its vote, a further 17 resolutions would have passed the 50% threshold. ShareAction noted that many asset managers justify a refusal to publicly support climate resolutions as they prefer to engage privately, or the firm in question is "already doing more than its peers".

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Investment Week