Even before the COVID crisis, this year’s annual general meeting season was shaping up as pivotal. The springtime ritual in which corporate directors meet shareholders face-to-face was to be the first since 181 CEOs signed a Business Roundtable pledge to elevate stakeholders – employees, customers, supplies and communities – along side shareholders. BlackRock’s Larry Fink warned corporate managers the $7 trillion asset manager might vote against them if they failed to make progress on climate risk and sustainability. And BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, along with JPMorgan Chase, the world’s biggest bank, both signed the Climate Action 100+ pledge to pressure the biggest emitters of greenhouse gases to clean up their act.
The face-to-face part won’t happen, of course, but COVID-19 has only raised the stakes for hundreds of corporations facing shareholder resolutions pressing them on climate, social and governance action. “This year can be an inflection point,” says As You Sow’s Andrew Behar. “The 2020 proxy season will test if investors and companies will help define a new economic paradigm or if these endorsements are just empty words.” Read Full Article - Impactalpha, April 28, 2020