Esse posicionamento é referente à reportagem Maior gestora de investimentos do mundo anuncia política contra aquecimento global, mas ignora pecuária e investe na JBS.

In a statement published this month, BlackRock announced that it has taken voting action in 53 different companies due to their lack of progress on climate action. However, they don’t include any agribusiness companies.

A study shows that by 2030 the livestock sector is set to have spewed out almost half (49%) of the total quantity of greenhouse gases that human activity worldwide can emit from now on (if global warming is to be restricted to the 1.5ºC target that the Paris Agreement recognised as the safe maximum). Considering this, why didn’t BlackRock mention companies related to the livestock sector in this action regarding climate change?

In our July sustainability report, we named the companies where we voted against management as our voting record is public.  We also issued a number of vote bulletins explaining our conditional support for companies in our universe of 244 that we believe need more time to meet our expectations.  Of the remainder, we recognize that each company is unique, starting from its own baseline, with its own capacities and limitations. We seek to achieve a balance between recognizing a company’s current position, while encouraging the appropriate urgency in advancing reporting and the practices underlying it.

Between the 191 companies ‘on watch’, that risk voting action in 2021, are there any agribusiness companies? If so, which one?

In our assessment, it is more effective to maintain confidentiality at this stage in our engagements with the understanding that we may make our concerns about inadequate responsiveness or progress on business practices and disclosures in future.

On the “Investment Stewardship’s approach to engagement with agribusiness companies on sustainable business practices” published this year, BlackRock states that: “Amongst other things, we ask companies to disclose any initiatives and externally developed codes of conduct, e.g. committing to deforestation-free supply chains, to which they adhere and to report on outcomes, ideally with some level of independent review.” How does it apply to meat producing companies such as JBS?

BlackRock Investment Stewardship publishes a lot of information about our policy positions, voting and engagement on the BlackRock website, including quarterly activity reports, voting records and engagement summaries.  In BIS’ 2019 third quarter report, we outline our engagement with five agribusinesses on the issue of deforestation and supply chain management.  The matters covered in these engagements align with the approach set out in our note on how we engage to encourage sustainable practices in agribusiness.   

In May of 2019, BlackRock released a statement about the palm oil industry. Does it plan to publish a similar statement regarding the beef industry?

We review our voting guidelines and other public documents every year following the peak shareholder meeting season to ensure they remain current and cover the most relevant issues, a project that will start in the coming months.

JBS has been accused several times of deforestation on its supply chain. The most recent one being the following:https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jul/27/revealed-new-evidence-links-brazil-meat-giant-jbs-to-amazon-deforestation

Did the company ever take any action regarding the deforestation cases within the supply chain of JBS? If so, could you specify it?

[Não houve resposta]

We will mention in our story that some of BlackRock’s JBS investments are made through index funds and ETFs – including one of them that is a Carbon Efficient Index, ICO2. In the case of investments that are made through ETFs, how does Black Rock’s sustainability policy apply?

BlackRock’s ETFs track the investment results of third-party indices to which our clients themselves choose to allocate their assets. For any questions about index methodology or rationale, we would direct you to the index provider.

Earlier this year, we committed to engage with major index providers to deliver sustainable versions of their flagship indexes to expand sustainable options for investors. We also committed to doubling (to 150) our offerings of ESG ETFs globally over the next few years so that clients have more choices to build their portfolios.

So far in 2020, iShares has launched 25 new sustainable ETFs this year across the U.S., Europe and Canada. BlackRock’s total assets under management (AUM) across its dedicated sustainable investing platform totaled $127.3 billion (as of June 30, 2020) with $9.9 billion in inflows during Q2 2020, bringing 2020 YTD NNB to $20.0 billion.

Investment stewardship is an essential component of our fiduciary responsibility. This is particularly important for our index holdings on behalf of clients, in which we are essentially permanent shareholders. We have a responsibility to engage with companies to understand if they are adequately disclosing and managing sustainability-related risks, and to hold them to account through proxy voting if they are not.

It’s important to note that the ownership structure of many of the companies in the sector, which have a single or small group of affiliated shareholders that control a majority of the shares, also limits the impact of proxy voting by a minority shareholder like BlackRock.

Regarding this information: “In BIS’ 2019 third quarter report, we outline our engagement with five agribusinesses on the issue of deforestation and supply chain management.” Is it possible to specify which are those companies? And whether it includes JBS or not?

Yes: ADM, Bunge, JBS, Mafrig, Minerva

Regarding this information: “BlackRock Investment Stewardship publishes a lot of information about our policy positions, voting and engagement on the BlackRock website, including quarterly activity reports, voting records and engagement summaries.” JBS is not listed between the companies mentioned on the website mentioned, and we also didn’t have an answer about it in our last email (question 5). Taking this into consideration, we are understanding that BlackRock has not taken any public action regarding the deforestation cases in the JBS supply chain. If this is not the case, could you specify any action that BlackRock has taken regarding this problem in JBS?

We have engaged with JBS and others to discuss their policies and practices on issues specific to operating in the Amazon Basin, such as land use and supply chain management, and to hear their views on the long-term climate-related risks for the agricultural industry associated with accelerated deforestation.  Since those engagements last year, we have continued to closely monitor these companies to assess their operational standards and progress, including implementing their sustainable land use policies. In recent engagements, we discussed JBS’s efforts to eradicate deforestation throughout its supply chain after the company provided an update on these efforts and progress of its advanced monitoring capabilities of supplier farms in the Amazon. We are closely monitoring progress and disclosures.

Moreover, you can see BlackRock’s most recent proxy voting record for JBS here: http://vds.issproxy.com/SearchPage.php?CustomerID=10228

It’s important to note that the ownership structure of many of the companies in the sector, which have a single or small group of affiliated shareholders that control a majority of the shares, also limits the impact of proxy voting by a minority shareholder like BlackRock.