Say-on-Climate Proposals Used by Some to Simply Appear Progressive

Garnet Roach of IR Magazine pens an article based on SquareWell’s latest investor-focused Insight – What’s Been Said on Climate. As Garnet Roach writes, a growing number of companies are proactively adopting say-on-climate (SoC) votes, particularly in carbon-intensive industries. The idea of an SoC vote was started as a campaign by the Children’s Investment Fund (TCI) in 2019 and has since spread globally. As of June 2021, SquareWell is aware of 32 companies that have submitted (or will submit) an SoC proposal, either management or shareholder-sponsored.

SquareWell’s analysis of SoC approaches that have been adopted by companies so far shows that they ‘vary to a great extent, with some companies putting their climate action plans as a one-off shareholder vote’, rather than a regular fixture for voting. Overall, management-sponsored SoC proposals have been supported, on average, by more than 90 percent of shareholders, says SquareWell, pointing out that only Glencore (UK), France’s Atos and TotalEnergies (formerly Total), S&P (US) and Royal Dutch Shell (UK) saw more than 10 percent dissent (including abstentions) on their climate action plans as of June 2021.

The full article can be accessed here.