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ShareAction releases its report on asset managers' ESG engagement

On January 17, 2023, ShareAction released a report on asset managers' engagement on environmental and social issues. 

ShareAction is a UK-based organization working with investors, policymakers and individuals to tackle today's most pressing issues: climate change, health, and working conditions, to name a few. 

This report shows that the world's largest asset managers are slowing progress on environmental and social issues

As part of the study, ShareAction observed the votes cast in 2022 by the world's 68 largest asset managers on 252 environmental and social shareholder proposals.

Three key insights emerge. 

First, on average, the 4 largest asset managers BlackRock, Vanguard, Fidelity and State Street supported only 20% of these resolutions, compared to 32% in 2021. This is particularly troubling since the voting agencies ISS and Glass Lewis recommended voting in favor of 75% and 42% of these proposals respectively. This means that managers have consistently gone against these recommendations. 

Second, members of the Net Zero Asset Managers Initiative and Climate Action 100+ supported on average less than a third of the climate resolutions. This raises questions about their motivation and the relevance of their participation in these initiatives. 

Third, there is a real geographic disparity in the way these issues are viewed, with European asset managers voting in favor of 81% of the proposals compared to only 43% for US managers. 

For more details or to see the other findings of the report, here is the link to access it: https://shareaction.org/reports/voting-matters-2022