Our voting intentions for 2025

Our investment stewardship activities are focused on supporting the creation of long-term sustainable value for our clients. We believe that exercising voting rights is an important part of this process, and of being a good steward of our clients’ assets more generally.

Sometimes, we may choose to declare our vote intention ahead of meetings, to clarify our views to the market, clients and other companies to a particular issue, resolution or outcome. The decision to do so can be undertaken where we deem the vote to be particularly contentious, or as part of an engagement programme. 

Over 2025, we will be updating this blog on a regular basis to highlight our vote intentions in advance of certain shareholder meetings. For information about our voting actions and rationales, please visit our dedicated website: VDS Dashboard (issgovernance.com)   

More information about our Investment Stewardship activities, policies and engagement activities  can be found on our website: https://am.landg.com/en-uk/institutional/responsible-investing/investment-stewardship/ 

BP Plc

Meeting: AGM, 17-04-2025

Summary of resolution: Resolution 3 – To re-elect Helge Lund as a director

Our vote intention: Against resolution 3 (against management recommendation)   

Rationale:  

We believe that climate change represents a financially material and systemic long-term risk to our clients’ portfolios.  Our stewardship approach to engaging with oil and gas companies regarding the transition to net zero is centred on mitigating systemic risks for our clients by advocating for and supporting companies in their decarbonisation journey, as they seize the long-term value creation opportunities related to the energy transition.

We value the significant steps BP has taken in recent years regarding its climate-related commitments and efforts, which we have supported through extensive and constructive dialogues, aimed at creating long-term value as the climate transition unfolds.

However, we are deeply concerned by the recent substantive revisions made to the company’s strategy as announced at the 2025 Capital Markets Day on 26 February, coupled with the decision not to allow a shareholder vote on the newly amended climate transition strategy at the 2025 AGM. We also note similar concerns that led us to vote against the re-election of Helge Lund as the company’s chair at the 2023 AGM, due to governance and accountability issues.

We view the recent announcement of Helge Lund's intention to step down as chair positively; however, we expect the succession process to follow a clearer and swifter timeframe than that currently posited by the company, to ensure an orderly and meaningful transition. 

Due to these concerns, we plan to vote against resolution 3.

Climate resolutions at Canadian banks

Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC)*, Laurentian Bank of Canada*, Bank of Nova Scotia*, Royal Bank of Canada (RBC)*, Toronto-Dominion Bank*, Bank of Montreal*, National Bank of Canada (NBC)*

Meetings: AGMs in April 2025

Background and rationale: 

The 2025 AGM season started with dozens of shareholder resolutions being put to a vote at the Canadian banks. Some of these bear close resemblance to proposals on 2024 agendas and we are sharing our assessment of three ‘types’ of shareholder resolution related to climate change that are appearing on agendas.

We continue to consider that decarbonisation of the banking sector and its clients is key to supporting long-term value for our clients’ portfolios, ensuring that the goals of the Paris Agreement are met, and to enabling value creation more generally through the opportunities presented by the climate transition. Accordingly, we plan to support these types of resolutions, depending always on the specifics of their drafting language and advisory or binding nature.

Summary of resolutions:

1)      Green finance ratio: disclosure of the ratio of clean energy supply financing as a proportion of fossil-fuel energy finance

2)      Client transition plan assessment: disclosure of sector specific scoring metrics for high-risk clients and processes to ensure their transition plans are aligned with the bank’s interim targets

3)      Provide decision-useful sustainability reporting and regular shareholder votes on evolving transition plans

1) Green finance ratio

Our vote intention: FOR the resolution (i.e. against management recommendation) – at CIBC, TD Bank, Bank of Montreal

L&G’s Asset Management business believes that banks and financial institutions have a significant role to play in shifting financing away from ‘brown’ to funding the transition to ‘green’ opportunities. We expect companies to be undertaking appropriate analysis and reporting on climate change matters, as we consider this issue to be a material risk to companies’ long-term profitability and value. Further detail can be found in our sector guide.

These resolutions replicate similar proposals at banks in 2024 and focus on the commercial opportunities arising from the transition. A number of North American banks have since agreed to provide such information and we believe that the remainder would benefit from making similar disclosures. We are therefore supporting these resolutions.

2) Client transition plan assessment

Our vote intention: FOR the resolution (i.e. against management recommendation) – at CIBC

We expect companies to introduce credible transition plans, consistent with their stated emission-reduction commitments and the Paris Agreement goals. In line with our expectations and discussions with the financial sector, we believe shareholders would benefit from additional information to better understand the real-world emissions reduction progress of each bank’s approach and to help the bank appropriately price climate risks, especially at a time where public statements and exclusion commitments become more difficult to provide. We believe such analysis to be material to companies’ long-term profitability and value, and are therefore supporting these resolutions. 

3) Sustainability reporting and shareholder approval

Our vote intention: FOR these resolution (i.e. against management recommendation) – at CIBC, Laurentian Bank, Scotiabank, RBC, TD Bank, Bank of Montreal, National Bank of Canada

As set out in our published corporate governance and responsible investment policy, L&G’s Asset Management business expects companies to undertake appropriate analysis and reporting on financially material sustainability topics including climate change, as we consider these issues to be material risks to companies’ long-term profitability and value. We are therefore supporting asks for additional decision-useful information to help investors correctly price sustainability risks. This is consistent with our rationales published previously regarding climate-related shareholder proposals.

Rio Tinto Plc

Meeting: AGM, 03 April 2025

Summary of resolution: Resolution 19 – Approve Climate Action Plan

Our vote intention: For resolution 19 (in line with management recommendation)  

Rationale: 

The mining and diversified metals sector produces minerals that are essential to the energy transition. As such, we believe that long-term, responsible investors, such as L&G, can support these companies as they decarbonise and realise the associated financial opportunities. In August 2024, we published our updated assessment framework for mining companies’ climate transition plans, which sets out our expectations and has formed the framework for our ongoing engagements with mining companies on this topic. 

We have been engaging in detailed and constructive discussions on this topic with the company since voting against its previous Climate Action Plan in 2022, aiming to bridge the remaining gaps, particularly regarding its approach to scope 3 emissions and customer decarbonisation.

Following what we view as substantive progress by Rio Tinto in this area, primarily through enhanced disclosure of its plans to decarbonise its value chains, as well as the clear and quantified actions set out to meet its emission reduction targets, we believe the company’s enhanced strategy closely aligns with our framework above, and should support its decarbonisation journey and the creation of long-term value as the climate transition unfolds. Therefore, we will be supporting resolution 19.

More information on our Investment Stewardship activities can be found on our website: 

https://am.landg.com/en-uk/institutional/responsible-investing/investment-stewardship/