Back in March I wrote a blog titled “Is ESG Proxy Engagement Dead?” In it, I explored results from the U.S. 2025 proxy season. These indicate that support for ESG shareholder proposals flattened substantially over the past several years. However, new research indicates that this phenomenon may be limited to U.S. proxy voting. A recent report from Oxprox finds that asset owners and managers in the UK and EU support ESG proposals at substantially higher rates than their US counterparts:
“The six proposal categories with the sharpest transatlantic divergence show UK+EU asset owners voting FOR at rates 27.8 to 68.3 pp higher than US asset managers. The gap is most extreme on Shareholder-Led Environmental (+68.3 pp) and Social Capital (+65.1 pp), where UK+EU AOs and US AMs appear to operate from fundamentally different stewardship frameworks. Even the narrowest gap shown — 27.8 pp — is wide by any measure.”
The report also notes that several European asset owners withdrew their assets from US-based asset managers due to the divide in priorities. While this news isn’t surprising, it does bode well for the resilience of ESG globally. Even when a global economy the size of the US backs away from ESG, other markets are still finding value. The political situation in the US plays a large role in the reduction of ESG proxy support, and it won’t last forever. Companies with an eye on the future may look to the situation in the UK and EU for guidance. In a few years, US companies may see a resurgence in ESG that realigns US markets with other global markets.
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