U.N. envoy Carney backs annual investor votes on company climate plans

By Simon Jessop and Matthew Green

LONDON (Reuters) – U.N. envoy Mark Carney backed a push to make companies give investors an annual vote on their climate change strategies, saying on Monday that might prove more effective than “overly prescriptive” regulation.

Carney, who took a U.N. climate finance role after stepping down as Bank of England governor in March, said investors could have an automatic advisory vote on a company’s plans to cut greenhouse emissions, in the same way they have a say on pay.

“Rather than have authorities be overly prescriptive on plans, it may be desirable to have investors have a say on transition,” Carney told a conference on climate finance in London.

“This would establish a critical link between responsibility, accountability and sustainability,” he added.

Last month, Spanish airports operator Aena became the first company to give shareholders an annual vote on its climate plans following pressure from billionaire investor Chris Hohn, founder of the TCI activist hedge fund.

Shareholders backed Aena’s plan, which include ensuring that airports in its network will be energy self-sufficient – largely using solar – and carbon neutral by 2026.

Backers of such votes believe they can help ensure that companies take their climate commitments seriously, and hope they will increasingly become the norm.

Carney was speaking at the start of a three-day Green Horizon summit in London, designed to mobilise the financial sector in the run-up to a U.N. climate change conference due to take place in Glasgow in late 2021.

(Editing by Andrew Heavens)