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Asset managers confirm they are not renewing membership of investor group, which pressures world's biggest carbon emitting firms to disclose and reduce their emissions
Global financial giants JP Morgan Asset Management and State Street have both quit Climate Action 100+, while BlackRock is scaling back its participation in the the investor-led green activist group, according to reports.
Launched in 2017, Climate Action 100+ is an investor-led initiative which challenges the world's biggest carbon-emitting public companies to decarbonise, with 170 firms currently selected for engagement.
JP Morgan AM joined the initiative in 2020, as did BlackRock and State Street Global Advisors.
However, a spokesperson for JP Morgan AM confirmed it is not renewing its membership, telling Investment Week that it had made the decision "in recognition of the significant investment it has made in its investment stewardship team and engagement capabilities, as well as the development of its own climate risk engagement framework over the past couple of years".
"The firm has built a team of 40 dedicated sustainable investing professionals, including investment stewardship specialists who also leverage one of the largest buy side research teams in the industry," the spokesperson added. "Given these strengths and the evolution of its own stewardship capabilities, JPMAM has determined that it will no longer participate in Climate Action 100+ engagements."
Neither JP Morgan AM nor State Street Global Advisors are still listed as members on Climate Action 100+'s website.
State Street Global Advisors has also opted to not renew its membership of the initiative, a spokesperson confirmed to BusinessGreen.
A spokesperson for the firm said State Street (SSGA) did not want to take part in the next stage of engagement efforts from the initiative, which aim to encourage polluting firms not just to disclose their emissions, but to reduce them.
"After careful review, State Street Global Advisors has concluded the enhanced Climate Action 100+ Phase two requirements for signatories will not be consistent with our independent approach to proxy voting and portfolio company engagement," SSGA said in a statement. "As a result, we have decided to withdraw from Climate Action 100+."
Meanwhile, the world's largest asset manager BlackRock is pulling out as a corporate member of Climate Action 100+ and transferring its participation in the initiative to its smaller international arm, according to reports.
BlackRock said in a note that it was dropping its corporate membership because it believes Climate Action 100+'s phase two strategy, which takes effect in June, conflicted with US laws requiring asset managers to act solely in clients' long-term economic interest, according to the Financial Times. BlackRock is setting up a new stewardship option allowing clients, particularly in Europe, to set decarbonisation as part of their investment objectives, the newspaper explained.
A version of this article first appeared at Investment Week.
