By Simon Jessop

LONDON, Reuters – BlackRock (NYSE 🙂 stated Tuesday that it expects to support fewer shareholder resolutions regarding issues like climate change during the current season. Many proposals are too restrictive.

BlackRock is the largest asset manager in the world, managing just over $10 trillion. It has taken steps to improve its climate stance in recent years. This effort aims to help clients make the transition to low-carbon economies.

Although BlackRock maintained its views on climate risk management and continued engagement with companies, some resolutions at AGMs proved too restrictive for boards.

BlackRock explained that the move was made by the U.S. regulatory agency to increase the number of votes allowed if it addressed major social policy issues.

It stated that such resolutions it would oppose included those that required management to cease providing financing to traditional energy companies or those that required alignment of bank business models with a particular climate.

BlackRock stated in an update on investment stewardship that “the nature of some shareholder proposals coming up for a vote at the ballot in 2022 means that we are most likely to support proportionately less this proxy season than 2021 because we don’t consider them consistent with our clients long-term financial interest,”

BlackRock stated that although it is still early in the year for annual meetings it pointed out that investors were not supporting many prescriptive resolutions.

BlackRock opposed votes for the April 13 request by Bank of Montreal that Canadian lenders adopt a policy linking financing to the International Energy Agency’s Net zero Emissions Scenario 2050.