The five US-based fund managers that have left Climate Action 100+ have a mixed record when it comes to supporting climate-related shareholder resolutions flagged up by this campaign group.
A review of the voting record of asset managers and asset owners by Morningstar found there was no evidence of ‘collusion’ among managers — one of the key reasons cited by those leaving this coalition. Morningstar says such accusations were “wide of the mark”.
Last year Invesco, JPMorgan, Pimco and State Street left Climate Action 100+ (CA 100+) with BlackRock restricting its participation to its non-US business.
However, Morningstar analysed the voting record of these managers on the 20 shareholder resolutions highlighted by CA100+ in 2023, as being important to tackle global climate change.
It found that prior to amending its membership, BlackRock only voted in favour of 10 per cent of these resolutions. In contrast Pimco, which has also left the group, supported 95 per cent of these 20 resolutions.
The figures for the other managers quitting CA100+ show that State Street supported just 25 per cent of these resolutions, Invesco 42 per cent and JPMorgan 50 per cent.
Morningstar also analysed the proxy-voting records of all signatories across these flagged resolutions, and said the results suggest a wide range of voting approaches rather than collusion.
It said that while support for these resolutions was higher among signatories it was by no means universal. The voting record shows that 76 per cent of signatories supported these resolutions; support by non-signatories averaged at 27 per cent.
The report found only one resolution — a request for Scope 3 greenhouse gas targets at Shell — was supported by less than 50 per cent of the 50 signatories.
The Morningstar research also identified a split in the voting records of US and European managers.
It said that the average voting profile of the five exited (or amended) signatories is very similar to that of the other US managers.
Morningstar reviewed 20 US managers who supported an average 48 per cent of the CA100+ 20 resolutions. In contrast, 20 European managers it reviewed supported an average 85 per cent of these resolutions.
However the research found that support was generally stronger among asset owners who were signatories, when compared to asset managers.
Across the entire group, support by the asset owners stood at 71 per cent on average, compared with 66 per cent for the asset managers.
Looking at the US asset owners, Morningstar found that 20 public pension asset owners in the US and Canada averaged 71 per cent support for the proposals. Even among five non-signatory asset owners, only two supported less than 60 per cent of the 20 resolutions.
