Our Work
Shareholder strategy
Shareholder advocacy harnesses the legal rights of shareholders as the ultimate owners of companies.
We use our expertise in the tools shareholders have under corporations law, including the filing of shareholder resolutions, members’ statements and direct company engagement, to enable investors to escalate their engagements with major, heavy-emitting listed companies in their portfolios.
Company Research
ACCR has a comprehensive research capacity with expertise in company-level climate and financial analysis, energy transition and climate science. Our team is drawn from the investment and finance sector, the oil and gas industry, and professional research fields. We produce a range of research as a guide to investment decision-making, including:
- In-depth company-level analysis of the climate transition plans of companies in our portfolio, contextualised with the latest climate science and company disclosures, assessing the credibility of transition strategies and identifying risks and opportunities for long-term investors.
- Thematic research into emerging issues in the energy transition.
Active Stewardship
ACCR works globally with institutional investors to deliver changes to the strategies of listed companies, in jurisdictions that are favourable to the use of shareholder rights.
Research and resolutions are just part of the work. Engagement, stewardship, activating shareholder powers and forming escalation pathways are significant activities in our approach with investors and companies.
ESG engagement initiative of the year, Asia: Investor coalition at J-Power
The initiative, representing around $3 trillion, became the first institutional investors to file a climate resolution in Japan when it called for more ambitious action by J-Power. The coalition was formed in January 2022 by the Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility and is made up of Man Group, HSBC Global Asset Management, and Amundi.
Decarbonisation
In order to limit global warming to an increase in line with the Paris Agreement, rapidly decarbonising the global economy is crucial. We challenge and monitor listed companies to make progress against credible short, medium and long term emissions reduction targets in line with the Paris Agreement.
Corporate Lobbying
All shareholders benefit from stable and predictable policy settings to drive investment decisions during the energy transition.
Lobbying to subvert and delay policy settings that enable rapid and orderly decarbonisation only increases the risks of future stranded assets, misaligned capital expenditure, and suppressed opportunities for investment in the transition. It also serves to exacerbate the severe impacts of climate change felt in all corners of society, and across all portfolios.
Investors have a critical role to play in curtailing the impact of negative lobbying by industry associations and heavy-emitting companies. Active stewardship can also be used to ensure companies that have a role in a zero carbon economy are taking positive steps to ensure the policy settings they need to decarbonise in line with the most recent science are in place.
Climate and Social Impact
As part of the global economic transition away from reliance on fossil fuels, multiple industries will undergo major transformations. ACCR supports the principles of Just Transition and engages with companies to encourage disclosure of Just Transition principles and metrics. Companies participating in the energy transition have a critical role to play in maximising the social and economic opportunities, while minimising and carefully managing the challenges and supporting impacted workforces and local communities.
While the transition from a fossil fuel-based economy is necessary and welcome, the demand for renewable economy minerals and projects creates its own challenges. ACCR promotes high social and environmental performance standards and reporting transparency by mining companies, and continues to support First Nations organisations and leaders in their calls for more effective legislative standards for protection of Country and culture.
