CalPERS is urging fellow shareholders of global mining company Rio Tinto to vote in favor of a proxy ballot resolution that would require the company to disclose activities related to climate change.
CalPERS on Wednesday filed an exempt solicitation with the Securities and Exchange Commission urging the action at Rio Tinto's April 14 annual meeting.
The proxy ballot resolution is co-filed by the $290.7 billion California Public Employees' Retirement System, Sacramento, with asset owners assembled by CCLA Investment Management. In the filing, CalPERS says it owns approximately 250,000 shares of Rio Tinto, which would be worth approximately $7.01 million as of midday Friday.
In a news release Friday, CalPERS said the management of Rio Tinto is in favor of the resolution. A company spokesman could not be reached by deadline.
“CalPERS recognizes climate change as a material risk to society, the economy and to our investments,” said Anne Simpson, CalPERS' director of global governance, in the news release. “We are glad to see Rio Tinto on board with this resolution, and we encourage other companies to reshape their strategy within the two degree targets set by the Paris Agreement.”
The Paris Agreement was signed at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in December, in which 196 countries agreed to a global response to climate change starting in 2020 and to publicly outline how they will contribute to keeping the average global temperature increase to below 2 degrees Celsius by 2050.
