Stockholm (NordSIP) – Many large asset managers are stepping away from sustainability-related activist investing, with their support for relevant shareholder resolutions almost evaporating since 2021. The new Voting Matters 2024 report published by non-profit ShareAction on 18 February 2025 provides an examination of the voting records of 70 of the world’s largest asset management firms during last year’s proxy voting season.
ShareAction’s investigation focused on 279 environmental and social resolutions, revealing that only 1.4% of these received majority support, down from 21% in 2021. The combined might of the world’s four largest asset managers has a significant impact on the overall figures, with their votes potentially making the difference between resolution failure and success. However, BlackRock, Fidelity Investments, State Street Global Advisors, and Vanguard have gone from supporting a third of resolutions in to rank in the bottom ten places in the report. Vanguard did not support a single environmental or social proposal in 2024.
Source: Voting Matters 2024 (ShareAction.org)
Managers deny they are shifting course due to the prevailing political wind, according to ShareAction. They prefer to point to their corporate engagement programmes or criticise the nature of shareholder resolutions. Regarding the latter, claims that resolutions are too prescriptive are contradicted by the fact that 75% of these are simply seeking greater disclosure on environmental or social matters. Asset managers are also able to file their own resolutions or propose amendments to other filing parties, but very few take up those options.
Claims that environmental or social resolutions are unnecessary due to progress made by investee companies also fly in the face of the transition pathways of listed companies, fewer than a quarter of which have set science-based climate targets. Moreover, the recommendations made by international proxy advisory firms such as ISS and Glass Lewis have remained constant over the 4-year period and do not reflect the significant progress alleged by the asset managers.
European managers are bucking the overall downward trend, voting in favour of 81% of resolutions and making up the Top 25 positions in the Voting Matters ranking. The highest ranked North American manager is Canada’s Manulife Investment Management at 27th, followed by Federated Hermes from the United States. The bottom 15 managers are all from the US or Canada. Managers were ranked according to an overall score reflecting their voting records on environmental, social, lobbying matters as well as their votes against company management.
Large collaborative sustainability initiatives such as Climate Action 100+ (CA100+) and the Net Zero Asset Managers Initiative (NZAM) have suffered high-profile withdrawals in recent months. Departing asset managers have claimed that they no longer need to collaborate with other investors as they are focusing on their own direct engagement with investee companies. However, there is little evidence of this in the Voting Matters 2024 report, which shows that CA100+ members vote far more ambitiously than those that have left the initiative.
The report also raises concerns over managers seemingly ignoring potentially serious human rights violations linked to four major weapons manufacturers. ShareAction also highlights a drop in support for biodiversity-related resolutions, which remains low overall.
This latest edition of the Voting Matters report should raise serious concerns with European asset owners currently outsourcing some of their management to North American managers. The sharp fall in support for environmental or social shareholder resolutions in the last four years indicates that many asset managers, including the world’s four largest, are neglecting to take these financially material risks seriously. Sweden’s €132 billion AP7 has already indicated that it is reconsidering its relationship with BlackRock following the US firm’s departure from the NZAM.
