According to its updated Proxy Voting Guidelines, the New York State Common Retirement Fund will withhold support for: (i) all incumbent directors on boards that failed to implement a shareholder proposal that received majority support at a company’s most recent annual meeting, and (ii) incumbent Nom/Gov committee members on boards that failed to implement a shareholder proposal that received majority support at any time over the last three years. As of January 27, 2022, Semler Brossy had identified 16 environmental proposals and 23 social proposals that had garnered majority shareholder support during the 2021 proxy season.
New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli’s release announcing the updated guidelines also notes heightened expectations of companies’ climate performance and associated voting implications (p 26). Going forward, the Fund reportedly will announce in advance of annual meetings its votes against directors at companies that “fail to address climate risks” and its support for “important climate proposals such as those calling on banks in the U.S. and Canada to mitigate climate-related risks by ensuring that their financing is consistent with the IEA net-zero 1.5°C scenario.”
See “Bank shareholder proposals to curb new fossil fuel lending get slim support” (Reuters) and additional resources on our Institutional Investors, Proxy & Annual Reporting Season 2022, and Proxy & Annual Reporting Season 2021 pages.
This post first appeared in the weekly Society Alert!