BlackRock Shareholders Vote on Climate Risk Mitigation Resolution at Annual Meeting

NEW YORK — BlackRock held its annual meeting today, where shareholders of the world’s biggest asset manager voted on a proposal calling on BlackRock to publish a report specifying how it will protect client portfolios from the systemic risk of climate change. In recent months, BlackRock has faced growing pressure from both climate advocates and fossil fuel-backed politicians over its role in environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing and climate risk management.

The shareholder proposal was introduced by Paul Rissman, a Sierra Club Foundation board member who filed it as an individual investor. It received 10% support from BlackRock shareholders. (By contrast, a resolution opposing diversity, equity and inclusion practices received less than 1% support.)

The proposal (Item 6 on page 102 of the proxy statement) requests “the Board of Directors produce a report specifying whether and how BlackRock could improve its pension fund clients’ investment returns, by focusing its climate-related investment stewardship and proxy voting to ‘engineer decarbonization in the real economy,’ mitigating BlackRock’s forecast cumulative loss in global output, due to unabated climate change, of nearly 25% in the next two decades, thereby improving financial returns to BlackRock shareholders.” Rissman also filed an exempt solicitation with the SEC providing a more detailed case for support by fellow investors on the resolution.

In response, the Sierra Club issued the following statements:

“BlackRock’s investment and proxy voting decisions do shape real-world outcomes, but they are often ones that lock us into a fossil-fueled future and accelerate portfolio-wide risk for its clients. Respecting clients’ preferences and responsibly managing climate-related risks are not mutually exclusive, yet Larry Fink uses it as an excuse to abdicate responsibility for risk management,” said Jessye Waxman, a senior campaign representative with the Sierra Club’s Fossil-Free Finance campaign. “It is encouraging to see investors starting to use their proxy votes to hold asset managers accountable for their role in the climate crisis. The resolution calling on BlackRock to evaluate a strategy to steward its investments to achieve tangible emissions reductions received the highest support of all the shareholder resolutions filed at BlackRock this year. This sets an important milestone for BlackRock shareholders, clients, and civil society to continue building upon.”

The Sierra Club is a member of BlackRock’s Big Problem, a global network of advocacy groups calling on the asset manager to align its business practices with climate solutions instead of continuing to fund climate destruction. 

“BlackRock’s largest shareholders are almost entirely all fellow asset managers. These asset managers rarely vote against each other, but based on the 10% support for the proposal on climate risk mitigation, it seems like a significant portion of asset owners and pension funds did support the resolution. Asset managers who care about retaining pension clients should take note,” said Paul Rissman, the proponent of the resolution and a board member of the Sierra Club Foundation. 

The Sierra Club Foundation filed several shareholder proposals on fossil fuel financing this year at big US banks, however, Rissman’s proposal at BlackRock was filed as an individual.