Climate Proposals Gather Steam

The number of shareholder resolutions related to the environment up for vote at annual meetings this year is way up and not just at the oil companies.

Some of the resolutions are attributed to shareholder concerns that companies are not doing enough to disclose product toxicity risks that are well known internally.

Activist victories were the subject of CERES, a coalition of investors lobbying for environmental causes. Bennett Freeman, head of social research and policy at the Calvert Group, said the investment firm had filed resolutions on climate change disclosure at 10 companies this proxy season; six of them—Big Lots, Lowes, Kirby, Ryder, Continental Airlines, and Harley-Davidson—subsequently agreed to produce climate change reports rather than face a proxy fight.

Each of these companies has agreed for the first time to disclose “specific steps that they’re prepared to take to address climate change risks, as well as opportunities,” Freeman told Compliance Week in a story published earlier this week. “This is all taking us closer toward our goal, which is comprehensive disclosure of climate change risk across the whole S&P 500.”

In addition, Calvert has filed resolutions with the airline industry that call for corporate strategy focused on greenhouse gas emissions.

“We’ve been frankly disturbed by the lack of quality in reporting by U.S. domestic airlines, so we want to try a different approach and see if it will pass muster by senior management,” he said.

Chevron was among the big oil companies taken to task by shareholders at its annual meeting this week where activists urged company officials to take responsibility for the environment and the human costs of oil production.

The California State Teachers Retirement System (CalSTRS) also pledged for the first time this year to file proposals on climate risk, “which is important to us,” CalSTRS spokesman Brian Rice told CW. The fund recently negotiated with Dynegy Corp. to prepare a report on the feasibility of reducing greenhouse gas emissions from existing and proposed power plants, Rice says.

The agreement comes as Dynegy is proposing to build as many as six new coal-fired power plants in the United States, which will be especially vulnerable to emerging carbon-reducing regulations.