AXA Investment Managers will be upping the ante for investee companies this year by adopting a ‘three strikes and you’re out’ escalation approach to climate laggards. As outlined in the firm’s 2021 active ownership and stewardship report, this AXA IM will target companies without net zero commitments or “whose quantified emissions reduction targets are insufficiently demanding or not credible”. The list will be revised annually. “AXA IM will regularly engage with those companies to steer them to achieve progress on those objectives, using escalation techniques when necessary (e.g. voting against management). If the objectives have not been achieved after three years, AXA IM will divest,” the report said. Climate change made up 33% of AXA IM’s engagement efforts in 2021.
