Climate Shareholder Proposals: A More Sophisticated Discourse

These trends reflect a confluence of factors, as the climate change corporate reporting landscape has significantly evolved over the past five years. Below are some key takeaways related to these changes.

Shareholder proposals have shifted to focus primarily on commitments to net zero and alignment with the Paris Agreement, compared to earlier years where requests tended to focus on emissions disclosure. Decarbonization engagements are becoming more nuanced, as evidenced by a greater focus on Scope 3 emissions in recent proposals. This past proxy season, the Financials sector received the highest number of climate-related proposals in 2024. High-emitting sectors like Energy and Utilities, which had received the bulk of climate-related proposals in previous years, ranked low in terms of climate proposals volume.