The Washington State Investment Board (WSIB) doesn’t think Chase should.
The WSIB used their significant shareholder power that comes from managing over $200 Billion in our retirement savings to vote against a 2023 shareholder resolution asking Chase to do just this.
Tell WA legislators to clean up the WSIB’s act and support HB2405.
The Chase vote wasn’t an anomaly. A recent report on state pension proxy voting records shows that the Washington State Investment Board routinely votes like this. The WSIB got an ‘F’ for their proxy voting record when several other blue states got an ‘A’.
The WSIB rationalizes their poor climate proxy voting record by claiming it is to “maximize returns for state employees” – state employees like myself, who would like to retire decades from now with a healthy pension and a healthy planet, but this doesn’t hold up. Climate change, especially in higher warming scenarios that WSIB’s continued investment practices are taking us toward, is a serious risk to long term financial stability, economic health, and future pension returns.
Insurance companies are overwhelmed by multi billion dollar extreme weather events; real estate markets are threatened by massive losses in property value as climate impacts make whole geographies uninhabitable; assuming we finally get serious about climate action, fossil fuel companies are set to have serious problems with stranded assets; these are all serious climate related financial risks that federal regulators, mainstream financial media sources and frontline communities around the world are raising the alarm about.
If anyone in financial system should hold a long term view to guard against these risks, it should be public pension funds that need to make sure that working people like me have a healthy retirement decades from now.
Thankfully we currently have a bill in WA, HB2405, introduced by Rep. Davina Duerr that would get the WSIB to use its proxy voting powers to support climate action in the companies it invests in, and to incorporate climate financial risk into its risk calculus.
Can you send an email to WA Legislators asking them to support HB 2405 today?
Cheers,
Andrew
PS. If you’re a pension holder yourself, a current or former public employee in Washington you can play a key role in this campaign. If that’s you please fill out this form so we can get in touch!
