T. Rowe Price has reported that ESG disclosure was the top issue in its engagements with companies in 2019.
The $1.0 trillion asset manager has said that climate change risk will impact virtually all of its portfolios and is being increasingly factored into the evaluation of company fundamentals. According to the firm’s latest annual ESG Report, ESG is being integrated into its investment processes which impacts how it interacts with company managements and casts its proxy votes. Maria Elena Drew, Director of Research, Responsible Investing at the firm says, “Environmental data is a key component within our responsible investing indicator model and… we’ve been active in using our scale and influence to drive positive change. In fact, ESG disclosure was our number one engagement topic of 2019, with environmental disclosure a feature of 38% of our ESG engagements.