It is true that noisy posturing from US Republican politicians about ESG is presenting a growing challenge to UK and European pensions funds (“The real impact of the ESG backlash”, The Big Read, December 5).
Each year ShareAction investigates how the world’s biggest asset managers vote at the business meetings of key companies on the issues that matter most to members of the public — sustainability, human rights, health and more. We’ve seen a significant drop in ESG voting ambition from
US fund managers, who nevertheless continue to safeguard business from pension schemes this side of the Atlantic.
When pension trustees give money to fund managers, they must be confident these managers are serving pension savers’ interests and not
a political agenda.
Pension trustees should expect more questions about the voting decisions of their chosen fund managers. It seems reasonable to ask whose interests were served this year during AGM season — you might question if they were the best interests of a climate-aware generation of pensions savers.
Catherine Howarth OBE
Chief Executive, ShareAction,
London E1, UK
