‘American wealth giants cross -trees Climate policy EU’
Blackrock, Vanguard, State Street and Fidelity Investments, the four largest US asset managers, have 11.8 percent of the shares of Dutch listed companies under management. With the acquired voting rights they influence the climate policy of Dutch companies negatively, economists Boris Schellekens and Rodrigo Fernandez say in the Economics Trade magazine ESB.
Because with their voices they reject climate resolutions much more often than the Dutch managers. Those pension funds, who claim to invest in a sustainable way, must break with the American asset managers, Schellekens and Fernandez argue.
Because research by ShareAction shows that of the 76 largest parties, only European managers score sufficiently at his benchmark for sustainable voting behavior. The American asset managers are dangling structurally at the bottom, according to the economists.
In response to American protectionism, the EU could consider levying higher transaction costs on these asset managers. Because European asset managers received letters from US states with legal threats if they continue to use their climate measures, such as the exclusion of fossil investments.
The five Dutch pension funds have 0.9 percent of the voting rights in the same listed companies.