The UN-convened Net Zero Asset Owner Alliance (NZAOA) has published a call to action, reiterating its expectations from asset managers on proxy voting, policy engagement, and engagement with best practices. The document calls on asset managers to focus on addressing the systemic risks of climate change through outcomes-focused corporate engagement, which also embraces sector, value chain, and policy engagement. Asset managers should support an improved proxy voting landscape for public equities through implementing consistent, ambitious, and merit-based proxy voting policies on climate topics with timely disclosure, thereby demonstrating alignment between policies and practices. The NZAOA also requested that asset managers align their lobbying activities with stated climate-related commitments, and make their climate engagement more systematic and transparent. The NZAOA said these principles would improve managers’ ability to win and maintain investment mandates from asset owners who recognize the risks that climate change poses to their portfolios.
#NZAOA releases a call to action to the #assetmanager industry, “Serving Asset Owner Clients [is only possible] through #Climate Stewardship.
It highlights four key principles implementing climate strategies systematically and consistently. https://t.co/4BJNwwA1bK pic.twitter.com/IzmPaBcIZE
— UNEP Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) (@UNEP_FI) February 6, 2024
