Public Engagement Report Q3 2024
Fast reading Insurers are exiting certain markets as physical climate risks rise and losses mount. EOS asks insurers to demonstrate how they embed climate-related considerations into their product design and pricing, as well as their capital adequacy decisions. With insurance losses from hurricanes Milton and Helene expected to run into the billions, and extensive flooding […]
Making the moat of it
An investing concept widely associated with Warren Buffett, feted CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, is to find companies with wide ‘economic moats’. Generally speaking, these are the kind of companies that have developed advantages allowing them to defend their profitability against encroaching competition. A strong brand identity (created through advertising and marketing expense) might be one […]
COP16 to challenge governments to deliver on Biodiversity Plan
Fast reading We expect to see progress towards the successful and comprehensive implementation of the Biodiversity Plan at COP16. Resource mobilisation and scaling up financing for nature from all sources will be key focus areas for negotiations. Financial institutions will address their nature-related risks and impacts through underlying changes at the companies they invest in […]
UN AMR meeting to tackle superbugs
Fast reading AMR is a systemic problem, often caused by the misuse or overprescription of antimicrobial medicines, particularly within livestock farming. There are growing regulatory and operational risks associated with AMR, ranging from its sale, use and efficacy, to discharge and wastewater pollution. EOS has been engaging with companies on AMR since 2017, alongside our […]
Disputes proliferate in fractious vote season
Shareholders attempting to exercise their rights found themselves frustrated this vote season as recalcitrant companies pushed back on investor escalation. Meanwhile, proxy contests increased in the US following regulatory changes, allowing shareholders to consider dissident nominees alongside the company’s preferred options, with a high-profile three-way battle at Disney. Biodiversity made a strong showing via resolutions […]
Engaging on demand-side climate solutions
Engagement with fossil fuel companies – “supply-side” engagement – has been a cornerstone of EOS’s climate change engagement over the last decade. In this time, oil and gas majors have committed to ambitious methane reduction targets, a greater consensus on coal phase-outs has been established, and at COP28 there was an unprecedented reference to transitioning […]
The value of transition planning
Shareholder votes on company climate transition plans are now a key feature of the AGM season in major markets, but the ‘say-on-climate’ is still in its infancy. As a consequence, it is complex for investors to analyse a company’s climate risks and opportunities. To tackle this challenge, EOS has developed a framework to enable all […]
Is the end in sight for animal testing?
Companies are often reluctant to disclose the extent of their involvement with animal testing. But a changing regulatory and risk backdrop, coupled with the growing advantages of alternatives, indicate that treating pharmaceutical animal testing only as an ethics-based issue is unsustainable. Some 90% of drugs that pass preclinical tests ultimately fail, and the biological differences […]
EOS at Federated Hermes wins ICGN Excellence in Stewardship Award
EOS at Federated Hermes has won the Excellence in Stewardship Award at the International Corporate Governance Network’s 2024 Achievement Awards, for its pioneering systemic engagement approach to reducing methane emissions. This work has been led by Diana Glassman with support from engagers across the EOS regional teams. EOS has engaged meaningfully on reducing operational methane […]
Public Engagement Report Q2 2024
Fast reading Changes to regulatory regimes are removing some longstanding requirements for drugs to be tested on animals. EOS has developed a framework to help investors identify a high-quality climate transition plan. How we use insights from our fossil fuel engagements to strengthen our climate discussions with companies for demand-side solutions. Animal testing is a […]
