Amundi, HSBC Asset Management and the Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility (ACCR), backed by Man Group, have filed a climate-focused shareholder resolution at Japan’s Electric Power Development Company (J-Power). This signals the investors’ intention to vote against the director responsible for J-Power’s climate strategy at its upcoming AGM. The resolution is comprised of two shareholder proposals that call on J-Power to set and disclose credible short and medium-term emissions reduction targets aligned with the Paris Agreement, as well as disclose how its remuneration policies incentivise progress against emissions reductions targets. The ACCR said that J-Power’s targets are “still not Paris-aligned or science-based, and the company has presented no indicative schedule for retirement of its coal-fired power assets”. Last year, 26% of shareholders supported a similar resolution filed by the trio, which represented the first investor group-led climate shareholder resolution in Japan. Jason Mitchell, Head of Responsible Investment Research at Man Group, said: “Despite a number of meetings over two years, we remain disappointed by the Blue Mission strategy. We do not have confidence that the company’s approach to the urgent challenge of decarbonisation will evolve under the current leadership, so we have decided to take voting action.”
Three major institutional investors announced their support for a shareholder resolution filed with J-Power – each also signalling an intent to vote against the director principally responsible for its climate strategy. https://t.co/aSDDS3PnYn
— Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility (@AustCCR) May 8, 2023
