Need to know
- BlackRock is the largest Western investor in three Chinese polluters that have no plan for cutting their emissions. Last year, the US firm voted just once against management at any of the three firms.
- BlackRock’s commitment to sustainability will be put to the test at the companies’ upcoming AGMs, due in late May and in June.
- Activist investors and climate campaigners say the US firm, and other large investors, should make greater use of their votes to nudge Asian companies into action on climate change.
- Other options include tabling shareholder resolutions, explaining to polluters how uncontrolled climate change would damage their businesses, lobbying the governments with majority stakes and threatening divestment.
- Comgest, Fidelity Investments, Schroders and Vanguard also hold the title of the biggest Western investor in other Asian climate laggards.
In January 2020, BlackRock famously announced that climate risk would become its new lodestar. But in China, the world’s largest asset manager is still a newcomer to the art of persuading companies to take climate change seriously.
The US firm is the biggest Western shareholder in three Chinese companies that are among the worst polluters in the world and also lack a strategy for reducing their greenhouse gas emissions. Last year, though, BlackRock voted just once against management at any of the three firms – when it sought to stop the election of Duan Liangwei as president of PetroChina. And not because of his inaction on climate, but because he didn’t show up for meetings.
Very soon, the firm will have another chance to prove its commitment to tackling the warming wrought by its $8.7 trillion of assets under management: the trio of polluters – Anhui Conch Cement, China Shenhua Energy and PetroChina – are due to hold their annual general meetings (AGMs) in late May and in June.
BlackRock said for the first time this January that uncooperative carbon-intensive companies “risk votes against directors in 2021”. But activist investors think the asset manager should go further still by proposing resolutions for a vote by the companies’ shareholders, to force them to reduce emissions.
“If I were a large investor like BlackRock, I would see it as a winning strategy to file resolutions that call for disclosure of emissions and a plan to manage those emissions, and an annual advisory AGM vote in countries where such votes are effective,” says Michael Hugman, head of climate finance at the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (Ciff).
Others agree large investors such as BlackRock should use every tool in their toolbox to push for action on climate change by Asian companies. That includes appealing to their self-interest by quantifying – as one data provider did for Risk.net – how uncontrolled climate change would damage their businesses. Other options are lobbying the governments that hold majority stakes in many of Asia’s worst polluters and, as a last resort, threatening divestment.
Get out the vote, get more out of your vote
Anhui Conch Cement, China Shenhua Energy and PetroChina are among the 167 companies that Climate Action 100+, a global investor group, has identified as key to the transition to a net-zero economy. The 167 companies account for more than 80% of corporate industrial greenhouse gas emissions around the world.
Risk.net has analysed Climate Action 100+ data and found that only 10 of the companies make no disclosures recommended by the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) – seen as the gold standard for climate reporting – and have no targets for reducing their emissions.
The three Chinese firms are among the ‘dirty 10’. In March, China Shenhua Energy and PetroChina did release commitments relating to emissions, but Climate Action 100+ has yet to verify the information.
Data from CDP, a global environmental charity, paints a similar picture of the three polluters. China Shenhua Energy and PetroChina at least make some climate-related disclosures through CDP – rather than in financial filings as recommended by the TCFD – while Anhui Conch Cement has ignored CDP’s requests for five years.
Bloomberg data covering listed shares shows that BlackRock owns 18% of Anhui Conch Cement, 14.8% of China Shenhua Energy and 21.2% of PetroChina, though BlackRock points out the stakes are much smaller when non-free float stock is added. When government stakes of between 48% and 80% are considered, the shareholdings drop to 2%, 1% and 0.7% respectively.
Either way, these stakes clearly do not guarantee victory in any AGM votes by BlackRock. So Hugman at Ciff suggests the asset manager should vote against company directors, over inaction on climate, in coordination with other investors “to really effect change”.
After five years of engagement with some Asian companies, the result is that they still report little to nothing on climate strategy
Maximilian Horster, ISS ESG
Maximilian Horster, head of climate solutions at data provider ISS ESG, agrees that investors in some Asian polluters should make more use of their ballots.
“After five years of engagement with some Asian companies, the result is that they still report little to nothing on climate strategy. Investors are recognising the limitations of engagement and the need to choose a different means. Voting, in jurisdictions where this is possible, is one way of doing that,” he says.
He argues that investors could vote against company management on any items, unrelated to climate, just to send a message of no confidence in the management. Examples include remuneration or the election of board members, he notes.
The reason that may be more effective, according to multiple sources, is because at some Asian companies, it is unclear who should even be held responsible for climate risk. To start with, investors might need to ask basic questions, such as whether the board has responsibility for the company’s climate strategy, then whether there is a senior executive with oversight of climate change, and eventually they should seek to ensure there is a link between managing climate risk and remuneration.
Shareholders might also vote against the audit and risk committee chair, as it could be argued climate change exposure is integral to the future of a business. Or they could vote against the leading independent director for failing hold the company to account.
An alternative view comes from Benjamin McCarron, founder of Asia Research and Engagement (ARE), which organises engagement between institutional investors and companies on sustainable development. He says that, if a company is taking insufficient action on climate, investors might first consider voting against its main yearly reports – in China, these are the reports from directors and the board of supervisors. The next step is opposing directors.
“We do believe in some cases it would be absolutely appropriate to take those steps, and China Shenhua Energy is included in that,” he says.
The power of collectivism
Shareholder resolutions are another tool.
BlackRock says it does not itself propose resolutions over climate but instead focuses on voting and engagement with the companies it invests in. Large investors generally do not file resolutions. That is because, says Hugman at Ciff, they enjoy privileged access to companies and so can press them privately on climate risk, and tabling resolutions can also disrupt their access to the firms.
But BlackRock could still find other investors or non-governmental organisations that are happier to file resolutions, Hugman argues, noting that private engagement “clearly isn’t driving change at a rapid pace”.
Another obstacle to overcome then is reluctance by very large asset managers to collaborate with other investors – something McCarron at ARE has observed with managers with more than $1 trillion in assets. ARE finds its programmes attract firms with around six to eight managers that hold between $100 billion and $1 trillion each.
For now, shareholder resolutions on climate are “almost unheard of” in most parts of Asia, says the Asia Investor Group on Climate Change. According to ISS ESG, climate-related resolutions were filed only in one Asian country last year – Japan.
If some climate risk laggards are particularly “difficult to bring to the table”, investors must make the case that climate change will ultimately impact the companies’ business, says Rick Stathers, climate change specialist at Aviva Investors.
To illustrate the scale of the potential impact, Risk.net asked ISS ESG to assess the three Chinese polluters BlackRock invests in and another five Asian companies: China National Offshore Oil Corporation, China’s Saic Motor Corporation, Coal India, India’s Oil & Natural Gas Corporation and Indonesia’s Aneka Tambang. The eight companies, along with Berkshire Hathaway and South Africa’s Eskom, make up our ‘dirty 10’.
In its study, ISS ESG invested a hypothetical £1 million into an equally weighted portfolio of the eight Asian companies. It found that the physical effects of climate change, such as floods and droughts, are on track to shave 9.3% off the portfolio’s value by 2050 in the likely scenario of 2–3°C global warming. In contrast, a benchmark portfolio – Euro Stoxx Climate Transition Benchmark – stands to lose only 1.5%.
And the eight Asian polluters make a disproportionate contribution to the warming that poses such a threat to their businesses: their weighted average carbon intensity – greenhouse gas emissions per £1 million of revenue – is 12 times higher than that of the companies in the benchmark portfolio.
Requests for comment were sent to the eight climate laggards, but they did not respond.
The government is here to help
Asian companies may present unique challenges to the responsible investor, but they are also open to influence through an additional channel. Gerrit Ledderhof, responsible investment manager at Aegon Asset Management, notes that many of the region’s worst polluters are majority-owned by the state. So, persuading Asian companies to act on climate change often means persuading the relevant government first.
“The people who run these companies, these governments, they’re not stupid,” Ledderhof says. “They can see when more investors start closing doors in their face. It makes them realise that they’re actually doing something wrong.”
China’s decision last year to set a net-zero target of 2060 for its economy may be a turning point. Chinese boards are likely be more responsive to an instruction from President Xi Jinping than a shareholder resolution from BlackRock’s Larry Fink.
The final option available to investors everywhere – albeit only with active strategies – is divestment.
The people who run these companies, these governments, they’re not stupid. They can see when more investors start closing doors in their face
Gerrit Ledderhof, Aegon Asset Management
For instance, Aegon’s approach with Asian companies is to talk directly to the board members responsible for environmental, social and governance issues if such members exist, says Heike Cosse, engagement manager in the responsible investment department at the Dutch fund manager. Sometimes the response is simply to point out that the company has built a community centre, church or a kindergarten.
In such cases, divestment remains the ultimate sanction. Chinese petroleum and chemical producer Sinopec is one example, Cosse says: “We approached them mainly on their human rights approach but also on environmental topics, and they were unresponsive or replied with short but very friendly answers that said nothing. We excluded them last year for a client.”
Risk.net asked BlackRock what it is doing to encourage Anhui Conch Cement, China Shenhua Energy and PetroChina to make climate-related disclosures and tackle emissions, but it declined to comment.
In February, the asset manager said its dialogue with companies in some Asian countries around emissions was at an earlier stage than in Europe or the US. In the first quarter, BlackRock voted against 53 directors for climate-related reasons, although it declined to say whether any of these votes were against Asian companies.
BlackRock was one of the main investors pressuring Taiwan’s China Steel to disclose its emissions and lower them over time. China Steel finally agreed to publish a TCFD-aligned report in 2021.
In good company
BlackRock is not alone among big fund managers in investing in Asian polluters that are on our ‘dirty 10’ list.
Comgest holds the largest Western stake in Saic Motor Corporation. In the past four years, the asset manager has voted overwhelmingly for the company’s proposals, according to available data. But a Comgest spokesperson says it has been engaging with the carmaker on environmental and social issues, and earlier this year was the lead investor in a CDP campaign to encourage the company to make climate-related disclosures.
Fidelity Investments is the biggest Western investor in Oil & Natural Gas Corporation. At the company’s 2020 AGM, Fidelity voted against one director, citing “committee independence concern”, but otherwise supported management proposals. Fidelity does not comment on specific investee companies but says its engagements with energy firms have “encouraged improvements in the disclosure of emissions data and setting targets in line with the goals of the Paris agreement”.
I’m cautiously optimistic that we are seeing a change at BlackRock, but it’s a little early little to tell how fundamental that is
Lila Holzman, As You Sow
The biggest Western investor in China National Offshore Oil Corporation is Schroders. The asset manager says it has engaged with the Chinese company over its climate-related disclosures twice in the past 18 months, via Climate Action 100+.
Lastly, Vanguard holds the title in two companies on our list: Aneka Tambang and Coal India. At Aneka Tambang’s 2020 AGM, the world’s second-biggest fund manager opposed a shareholder proposal to make changes to the board. At Coal India’s 2020 AGM, it opposed the election of five directors. Vanguard did not publish reasons for its votes.
A Vanguard spokesperson says: “Where companies are not moving in line with market regulation or taking the necessary action to mitigate climate risk, we will take action on behalf of Vanguard funds.”
Back at BlackRock, attention is turning to the upcoming AGMs at Anhui Conch Cement, China Shenhua Energy and PetroChina.
The asset manager’s voting at the three meetings will be disclosed in July. Lila Holzman at As You Sow, a US group promoting corporate responsibility through shareholder advocacy, hopes the votes will be an improvement on BlackRock’s previous votes over climate change.
She points to encouraging signs from the current AGM season in the US and says: “I’m cautiously optimistic that we are seeing a change at BlackRock, but it’s a little early little to tell how fundamental that is.”
Additional reporting by Ben St. Clair and Will Hadfield, editing by Olesya Dmitracova
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