"The SEC has proposed rules that could reduce shareholder proposals for environmental, social and sustainable governance issues, while providing cover for corporations like Exxon Mobil."
"In recent years activist investors have pushed for, and won, sweeping changes to corporate policies, turning the shareholder proposal into a powerful form of dissent from within. The most frequently targeted corporations include Chevron and ExxonMobil, whose shareholders have pushed for action on climate change and other issues for decades.
But now, at a time when this type of shareholder activism has been rising for decades, the Trump administration has proposed new rules that would make it significantly harder for investors to challenge corporations at annual shareholder meetings.
Of the 400-plus shareholder proposals on the table this year, 21% involve climate change or other environmental issues. Another 18% seek changes in corporate political activity, while 11% concern human rights, according to analysis published in Proxy Preview 2020, an annual report tracking environmental, social and corporate governance proposals brought by shareholders."
Christine MacDonald reports for The Revelator April 27, 2020.
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