Shareholder advocacy group Majority Action has described State Street Global Advisors’ (SSGA) new proxy voting guidelines and climate disclosure guidance for 2023 as “a material step backwards on climate.”
According to an assessment of the changes conducted by Majority Action, SSGA’s new guidelines fail to follow through on its January 2022 commitment to hold directors accountable to a clear 10-point list of climate expectations in the 2023 proxy season.
The advocacy group also argued the guidelines retreat to a “vague” Task Force on Climate-Related Disclosures (TCFD) disclosure recommendation to portfolio companies, no stronger than what it had in place in 2017.
It’s also contended that the new policies no longer acknowledge that climate is a systemic risk with references to the Just Transition deleted.
Majority Action stated that clients and stakeholders of SSGA should ask the asset manager to clarify the significance of the changes, stating that its key peers already “outperform SSGA on climate accountability.”
The NGO concluded that SSGA’s “step backwards” in using its stewardship power to mitigate systemic climate risk is “all the more concerning in light of SSGA’s previous public leadership in highlighting boardroom accountability as a crucial lever.”
“Among the four biggest global asset managers, SSGA appears to have joined Vanguard in taking a significant step backwards in response to politicized, short-term pressure, contrary to the best interests of long-term diversified investors,” Majority Action argued.