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BlackRock’s assist for shareholder proposals on environmental and social points hit a brand new low within the 2023-24 proxy season, it disclosed on Wednesday.
Within the 12 months to the top of June, BlackRock supported simply 20 of the 493 environmental and social proposals put ahead by shareholders, or about 4 per cent of the full, in accordance with its annual funding stewardship report.
The decline in assist comes as firms’ efforts to handle local weather change and inequality — points that have been as soon as bundled collectively below the ESG umbrella — have grow to be politically fraught.
The $10.6tn asset supervisor’s assist for environmental and social points has fallen steadily from a 2021 excessive of 47 per cent because it has come below assault from each the left and proper of the US political spectrum.
Conservatives have accused BlackRock of utilizing its massive holdings to pursue “woke capitalism”, whereas the left has complained that it has didn’t push onerous sufficient for decarbonisation.
Lots of this 12 months’s proposals have been “overly prescriptive, missing financial benefit or asking firms to handle materials dangers they’re already managing”, wrote Joud Abdel Majeid, BlackRock’s world head of funding stewardship.
The variety of no votes was lifted this 12 months by BlackRock’s uniform opposition to 88 conservative-backed anti-ESG resolutions looking for to forestall firms from addressing such points.
The world’s largest cash supervisor voted in favour of 79 of the 374 governance proposals it thought-about, or 21 per cent, up from 11 per cent final 12 months. Among the many most typical have been proposals to introduce easy majority voting, relatively than requiring a supermajority.
BlackRock’s lack of enthusiasm for environmental and social proposals contributed to low total assist for such measures at many company annual conferences.
The median assist for environmental and social shareholder proposals at Russell 3000 firms was 21 per cent and 18 per cent, respectively, this 12 months, in accordance with information from ISS-Company. Solely two climate-related questions acquired majority assist.
Globally, BlackRock supported 88 per cent of proposals put ahead by the businesses it invests in, together with 82 per cent of these associated to pay. It additionally backed 90 per cent of company-nominated administrators, just like its voting in earlier years.
It mentioned its principal causes for opposing administrators have been lack of independence, membership on too many boards and considerations about govt compensation.
