"Top super funds increasingly vote down climate resolutions", 8 June 2020

Eight major super funds have been criticised for voting against the majority of shareholder proposals on climate change at recent annual general meetings despite being members of an investor group pushing for companies to take action on climate risks.

AMP, AustralianSuper and First State Super are among the funds singled out in a report by the Australian Centre for Corporate Responsibility (ACCR) for voting down more than half the climate-related shareholder proposals over the past three years.

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The ACCR report examines publicly available voting records of Australia's 50 largest super funds that control a total of $1.8 trillion in assets. It found overall support for climate resolutions in 2019 was down, with AMP, MTAA and Media Super all supporting less than 10 per cent of proposals through the year.

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At BHP's annual meeting last year, AustralianSuper, Unisuper and Mercer were the only three funds to vote against a resolution that asked the mining giant to exit memberships of lobby groups considered to undermine the Paris Agreement goals, according to the report.

AustralianSuper's environmental, social and governance director Andrew Gray said the fund had engaged with BHP on the proposal and decided involvement with industry groups such as the Minerals Council was necessary to encourage emissions reductions.

VicSuper was among four funds that supported more than 70 per cent of all climate-related proposals last year, including demanding Rio Tinto release a plan to transition away from fossil fuels. [...] This is in contrast to First State Super, which voted against 67 per cent of resolutions last year, according to the ACCR report. [...]

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Unisuper...voted against more than half the climate-related shareholder proposals between 2017 and 2019. [...]

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[Companies also mentioned in the report are Woodside Petroleum, AGM, BHP, Rio Tinto, Origin Energy]