Our engagement activities enable long-term institutional investors to be more active owners of their assets, through dialogue with companies on environmental, social and governance issues.

In 2010, Duke Energy adopted its first carbon dioxide emissions reduction target – it planned to reduce emissions 17% below the 2005 levels by 2020. The Clean Power Plan (CPP) was finalised in 2015 by the US Environmental Protection Agency, targeting power generation emissions reductions of 32% by 2030 relative to 2005. The Supreme Court stayed the CPP’s requirements in early 2016 and it was never implemented.

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Since the introduction of Japan’s Stewardship Code in 2014 and the Corporate Governance Code in 2015, dialogue between investors and Japanese companies has become more common and the governance of many companies has improved. However, many challenges remain and progress in some areas has been slow.

The award-winning study ‘ESG shareholder engagement and downside risk’, which uses engagement data from Hermes EOS, reveals that companies that are successfully engaged by EOS exhibit a lower risk profile, particularly when environmental issues are tackled.

What is on the horizon for financial markets as we enter a new decade?