A $7 trillion climate change warning to the stock market from its biggest shareholder
The evidence of climate change — from global temperature records to Arctic ice melt, wildfires, hurricanes and flooding — is accelerating. So is investment pressure on corporations.
In the past week, Exxon Mobil was targeted by activist investors, as well as CalSTRS, one of the nation’s largest pension funds. New York State’s $226 billion pension fund announced a plan to potentially divest from oil and gas stocks in the years ahead. The world’s largest money manager, BlackRock, issued an update to its approach to engaging with corporations, indicating it will be more inclined to vote in favor of shareholder resolutions, and against boards of directors at companies.
While that BlackRock strategy change — outlined in a new investment stewardship document published Wednesday night — may seem to be the mundane one among recent climate actions in the market, impact investing experts say that ahead of the 2021 annual shareholder meeting season, the $7 trillion fund manager’s plans represent an important change. [Continue reading…]