The Most Important Climate Elections You’ve Never Heard Of 

In the fight for a livable planet, everyone knows we need to elect strong climate champions. But did you know that each spring there are elections that have a huge impact on the climate and our future? We’re talking about the voting that happens every year at the annual shareholder meetings of US corporations. This includes banks, insurance companies, major tech firms, automakers, polluting fossil fuel companies, and other companies with huge climate footprints. 

• Take action: Stop big banks from funding climate chaos. 

Every year, these companies run elections to decide who should be on their boards of directors and hold votes on shareholder proposals that are critical for the fight against the climate crisis. The outcomes of these elections are instrumental in determining how these companies will act – whether fossil fuel companies will build projects, whether banks will bankroll fossil fuel expansion or fund climate solutions, and whether companies will take responsibility toward Indigenous and frontline communities. These votes have an significant impact in determining whether or not we will rein in catastrophic climate change, end environmental racism, and more. 

In other words, these are the most important climate elections you’ve (likely) never heard of. 

Unlike a lot of elections, this isn’t a system of “1 person, 1 vote.” Instead, the biggest investors in these companies get a larger say. These investors have an outsized influence in determining the future leaders of a company, who manages a company’s climate plan, and which climate policies the company implements. In short, these investors are largely responsible for deciding the outcome of these critical climate votes that affect our future.

Just because these investors hold a lot of voting power, doesn’t mean we can’t do anything about them. It’s our job to make sure investors vote the right way to help ensure a safe and prosperous future. 

Who are these big investors anyway?

There are a number of big investors with a history of voting against climate action. Some of them are asset managers like BlackRock and Vanguard. These private-sector investment firms have outsized influence over nearly every company. Other investors like public pensions, state treasurers, and comptrollers represent our own communities and the interests of government employees and their families. We need all of them to vote to protect our climate and our savings. 

Some major investors include state and municipal pension funds. These pension funds manage the retirement savings of public sector workers, including teachers, firefighters, public hospital employees, and more. Since these are all public sector employees, the money in their pension funds is your tax dollars at work. With more than $46 trillion in assets worldwide, public pension funds are also among the largest institutional investors, giving them immense voting power that a typical individual investor doesn’t have. Not only that, but these public pension funds are some of the biggest clients of the big asset managers, which means they can play a critical role in getting the Wall Street giants to vote the right way.

• Take action: Send a message to major asset managers to stop big banks from funding climate chaos.

Four of the biggest global investors – BlackRock, Vanguard, Fidelity, and State Street – collectively controlled over $26 trillion in 2022. These asset managers handle funds on behalf of individual investors, as well as major companies and the public pensions of cities, states, and entire countries. Collectively, if these investors were a country, they’d be the richest in the world. These firms are among the top shareholders at nearly every major bank, insurance company, fossil fuel company, tech firm, automaker, and almost every other major public company on the planet. These Wall Street giants are no joke – they can hold tens of millions of shares in these companies. Not only do they have way more voting power than the typical individual investor, but their size means they have make-or-break voting power in determining the outcomes of critical votes on boards of directors and shareholder proposals. 

As some of the biggest investors in the world, these asset manager giants must use their voting power to send the right messages to financial firms and major polluters about the need to act urgently on climate. And we must use our voices, and any client relationships we have with these asset managers, to push these financial giants to vote the right way. 

What are the critical votes this year?

This year we’re zooming in on holding banks accountable for their role in the climate crisis. The six biggest US banks – Chase, Citi, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, and Goldman Sachs – are some of the biggest funders of climate chaos in the world. While each of the “Big 6” banks has made a commitment to reach net-zero emissions by 2050 for the projects they finance, none of the banks have concrete policies in place that stop them from funding the companies most responsible for expanding dirty energy projects and driving the climate crisis. 

Since the Paris Agreement, these big US banks have collectively provided over $1.75 trillion in financing to the fossil fuel industry. Thanks to this funding, big fossil fuel expansion projects – like the Willow Project in Alaska, the Line 3 Pipeline, LNG export terminals in the Gulf, and oil drilling in the Amazon rainforest – move closer to reality every day.

That’s why the Sierra Club Foundation, together with investor allies, filed shareholder resolutions at the big 6 US banks, calling on banks to adopt a policy to phase out their financing for companies involved in fossil fuel expansion projects.

• Take action: Send a message to major asset managers to stop big banks from funding climate chaos. 

These aren’t the only efforts being undertaken this shareholder season to hold banks accountable for their role in the climate crisis. Other investors, including the New York City Comptroller, filed resolutions calling for banks to set targets to reduce absolute greenhouse gas emissions of their clients, to disclose the steps necessary to meet climate targets, and to ensure clients respect Indigenous rights. And other advocacy groups, like Stop the Money Pipeline, are calling on shareholders to vote against the reelection of bank directors standing in the way of progress on climate issues. 

Realistically, the best way for banks to stop funding the climate chaos is to take all of these steps. That’s why it's important to call on big investors like BlackRock and state pension funds to support all of them. Now is the time to make our voices heard.

What can I do to get these investors to vote for my future? 

As our climate crisis worsens, it’s imperative for asset managers and public pension funds to show their support for critical climate resolutions, vote out directors at companies with failing climate commitments, put real climate champions into boardrooms, and hold financial institutions to account for enabling environmental racism. Just last year, many of these firms and funds voted against resolutions calling for an end to fossil fuel expansion and resolutions requiring companies to respect Indigenous rights. There’s no excuse: if they vote no again this year, they’ll be blatantly disregarding climate science and the needs of frontline communities. 

We’re working to change that. Let’s make your voice heard.

Take action

Send a message to major asset managers to stop big banks from funding climate chaos. And depending on where you live, you can also send a message to your state treasurer telling them to vote for climate action on Wall Street.

Money talks. Let’s make sure it’s saying the right things. Because our collective future is on the line.