Investor Insight ACCR Annual Review FY23
From our Executive Director
Pressure from shareholders yielded significant wins for the climate over the past year. Australia’s biggest corporate polluter, AGL, agreed to bring forward the closure of one of its coal-fired power stations by a decade and shareholders installed four new climate-competent directors on the company’s board. Coal-mining giant Glencore withdrew from plans to develop a new greenfield coal project in Queensland, preventing over one billion tonnes of carbon emissions being released, and a large shareholder vote in support of our resolution - supported by ground-breaking ACCR research - forced the company back to the engagement table under the UK Corporate Governance Code for the second year in a row. Woodside saw a record-breaking vote against a long-standing director, signalling a new willingness by investors to hold boards to account for climate failings.
Yet, we should not deceive ourselves that progress towards decarbonisation is happening fast enough. ACCR has further centred climate science in our work this year, with the appointment of a Chief Scientist. The science clearly shows that climate change is already impacting billions of people worldwide and threatening climate systems that are foundational to planetary stability. Meanwhile, many of the heavy-emitting companies we engage with are still pursuing new fossil fuel projects with emissions the world can not safely tolerate.
We have continued to build our relationships with institutional investors, co-filing the Glencore resolution with a global coalition of investors collectively representing US$2.2 trillion of assets under management. In Japan, our co-engagement with institutional investors saw Nippon Steel, the world’s fourth largest steel company, make important commitments towards green steel production.
Our talented, multidisciplinary team has grown, and we have deepened our research and analysis of our focus companies. Our research plays a vital role in informing our strategy and the stewardship activities of institutional investors. As always, we are grateful for the ongoing support from our shareholder community, whose willingness to hold shares in ASX-listed companies gives us the ability to deploy shareholder tools when necessary.
We face this moment with a determination to push for faster, more robust progress towards real-world emissions reductions. Delay only increases the future risks to people, the economy and investment portfolios, and we look forward to continuing our work into 2023-2024.
Download our Annual Review 2022-2023.
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