The EU’s High-Level Expert Group (HLEG) on Sustainable Finance, set up by the European Commission in December 2016, has produced its final recommendations. The Commission has pledged that these proposals will form part of its sustainable finance action plan that will be discussed at a conference in Brussels in March. The HLEG made recommendations across […]
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The Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association’s (PLSA) 2018 corporate governance policy and voting guidelines have been published providing its members with examples of good stewardship practice and recommendations for key votes at the Annual General Meetings of their investee companies, on subjects such as executive pay, the re-election of directors and the approval of the annual report. The […]
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The 2018 State of Green Business Report – produced by GreenBiz and Trucost – stated that the corporate carbon emissions of the largest 1,200 global companies and the largest 500 US companies fell in 2016 reaching the lowest level in the past five years, as a result of a switch to cleaner fuels. There have also […]
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Global companies attending the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos have made sustainability commitments on recycling and renewable energy. The Ellen MacArthur Foundation, which is campaigning for a circular economy in the use of materials, announced in Davos that 11 companies had signed up to its new plastics economy initiative. This means that […]
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Larry Fink, chairman and chief executive of BlackRock, has stated his commitment to the role of the global investment giant as a steward for the companies in which it invests in his annual letter to chief executives. As a major index fund investor Fink believes that BlackRock can increase the value of these investments through engagement […]
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New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, has announced that the city has filed a lawsuit against the five largest investor-owned fossil fuel companies as measured by their contributions to global warming. New York will be seeking damages from BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil, and Royal Dutch Shell for the billions of dollars de Blasio said […]
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Activist institutional investors, the public pension fund CalSTRS and Jana Partners, have begun a campaign calling on the technology giant, Apple, to consider the evidence that children that are excessively using electronic devices, such as its I-phone, may be damaged by this and to support parents to control their usage. In an open letter to […]
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In the opening remarks of his New Year press conference South Korea’s President, Moon Jae-in promised to push for corporate governance reform through the introduction of a stewardship code and improvements in shareholders’ voting rights. He admitted that the reform of the traditional chaebols or conglomerates was needed and he said it was important from the […]
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Four of the top ten largest asset managers in the US voted in support of a climate change-related shareholder resolution for the first time ever during 2017 research by Fund Votes for the pressure group, Ceres has found. The asset management firms that voted for the first time in favour of a climate-related proposal were […]
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Global mining and oil company BHP said it intends to pull out of the World Coal Association (WCA) over its position on climate change. This follows the publication of a review of industry associations that have an active position on climate and energy policy analysing if these views are materially different to its own position. The report […]
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