Yesterday’s news

...is tomorrow’s fish and chip paper. That’s a lyric from an Elvis Costello song. Very handy for keeping me humble during my journalism days.

But I got news yesterday that made me feel not-so-humble:

"At the suggestion of Professor Lucian Bebchuk, I am writing to invite you to prepare a post introducing you report (“The Missing 55%”) for the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation. We would suggest a two to four page post that summarizes the main points of your report, but lengths of practitioner posts vary significantly.” Woo hoo!

Also yesterday, an article about the Missing55 report was printed in the Financial Times fm section (fund management). It is very good to get this kind of visibility because the goal is for Vanguard and BlackRock to change their strategy on climate risk. They voted against nine shareholder resolutions at US utilities, all of which have a horrible record on greenhouse gas emissions. Vanguard and BlackRock say they favour private engagement over public proxy votes, however that approach lacks transparency, accountability, and metrics. A public proxy vote puts pressure on
companies that have, up to now, fought the transition to clean energy. They need a very public push to do the right thing.
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