Shareholders Push Action on Global Warming
September 6th, 2007
A shareholder proposal by the New York City Pension Funds for a company they invest in, Allegheny Energy, received a record number of supporters for a global warming resolution. Although the proposal failed vote is advisory only, almost 40 percent of voting shareholders voiced support for it. If passed, it would have mandated that the company disclose publicly how it is responding to global warming.
Shareholder resolutions on climate-related issues enjoyed tremendous support and brought new successes this year, said City Comptroller William Thompson. There still is much work to be done, however, as some companies have not responded adequately to these important issues.
The comptroller’s office had argued that by not acting on global warming, “Allegheny’s shareholders bear significant financial and competitive risk.”
Although the funds hold millions of dollars in shares in a company, they usually account for a small percentage of total votes, somewhere around 1 percent. This means that there was broad support for the measure beyond the city’s pension funds.
Ceres, an environmental investment coalition that the city and state comptrollers are part of, has placed Allegheny Energy on its watch list of 10 companies because it is lagging its competitors in addressing climate change.
By Mike Muller on September 6, 2007, 8:33 amIn category: Economy, Environment
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