Wall Street messaging on climate activism

A new analysis finds that in 2017 the world's largest asset managers often declined to support shareholder resolutions that pushed large power and oil companies to respond more aggressively to climate change risks.

Why it matters: The report arrives as activist investors and their allies are increasingly pushing large energy companies to disclose more about their plans to address climate change. There's a particular focus on pushing companies to model how their business will fare in a hypothetical carbon-constrained world in which emissions are on a trajectory to hold the global temperature increase to two degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels.

The details: Click here to read the full report from the 50/50 Climate Project, a nonprofit group that urges institutional investors to use their leverage on the topic.

• It tallies the frequency with which 24 of the largest asset managers supported what the 50/50 Climate Project selected as "key" resolutions during the 2017 proxy season.

One big finding: The behavior of big institutional funds matters a lot, as only a few of the biggest asset managers would have been able to affect key climate-reporting proposals at energy and utility companies last year.

• "If either of the top two asset managers, BlackRock and Vanguard, had voted yes on any of ten or eight key climate proposals, respectively, those proposals would have received a majority of support," it states.

One big question: Whether BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, will take a more activist stance going forward in light of CEO Larry Fink's recent open letter to companies urging a greater focus on "social purpose."