What Vanguard’s ‘proxy voting choice’ program could mean for climate investing

By Trey Thoelcke Updated Feb 16, 9:36AM EST · Published Feb 16, 4:32AM EST

Follow 24/7 Wall St. on Google

This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them.

What Vanguard’s ‘proxy voting choice’ program could mean for climate investing — © Semen Salivanchuk / iStock via Getty Images

(Mark Hulbert, an author and longtime investment columnist, is the founder of the Hulbert Financial Digest; his Hulbert Ratings audits investment newsletter returns.)

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (Callaway Climate Insights) — Don’t count on Wall Street’s largest asset managers to begin aggressively pushing corporations to adopt more climate-friendly policies.

Don’t blame those managers, however. It may very well be that their clients — the ultimate owners of the investments — don’t want the firms to be that aggressive.

The largest asset managers to which I refer are BlackRock $BLK , the world’s largest asset manager with an estimated $10 trillion in assets under management, and Vanguard, the second largest with over $7 trillion in AUM. Both firms initially took relatively strong stands urging the corporations in which they invest to become carbon neutral, but more recently have retreated from those stances. Their focus has become giving their clients a say in what pressure, if any, should be put on the companies in which the funds invest.

We’ll soon find out how much…

Subscribe to Callaway Climate Insights to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.

About the Author Trey Thoelcke →

Trey has been an editor and author at 24/7 Wall St. for more than a decade, where he has published thousands of articles analyzing corporate earnings, dividend stocks, short interest, insider buying, private equity, and market trends. His comprehensive coverage spans the full spectrum of financial markets, from blue-chip stalwarts to emerging growth companies.

Beyond 24/7 Wall St., Trey has created and edited financial content for Benzinga and AOL's BloggingStocks, contributing additional hundreds of articles to the investment community. He previously oversaw the 24/7 Climate Insights site, managing editorial operations and content strategy, and currently oversees and creates content for My Investing News.

Trey's editorial expertise extends across multiple publishing environments. He served as production editor at Dearborn Financial Publishing and development editor at Kaplan, where he helped shape financial education materials. Earlier in his career, he worked as a writer-producer at SVE. His freelance editing portfolio includes work for prestigious clients such as Sage Publications, Rand McNally, the Institute for Supply Management, the American Library Association, Eggplant Literary Productions, and Spiegel.

Outside of financial journalism, Trey writes fiction and has been an active member of the writing community for years, overseeing a long-running critique group and moderating workshop sessions at regional conventions. He lives with his family in an old house in the Midwest.