Sharp drop in the number of significant resolutionsmeans investor views are much harder to interpret.
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According to Morningstar’s 2025 ESG Shareholder Voting Review, there has been a notable reduction in the volume of major resolutions in the United States, underscoring growing complexities in understanding investor sentiment. Changes to SEC shareholder resolution guidance led to a 22% drop in voted proposals and a 40% decrease in environmental and social resolutions for the 2025 proxy year.
Despite this, support for standard ESG resolutions (not including those by “anti-ESG” filers) has remained steady for three years at around 26–27%.
Market is losing critical signals
"Following this year’s proxy voting season, it’s clear the market is losing critical signals on sustainability factors many investors view as vital for long-term investment decisions.
There were only 30 significant environmental and social resolutions in the 2025 proxy year (i.e. those with at least 30% support from independent shareholders), a stark contrast to the 100+ we saw in each of the five years prior.
US and European asset manager's voting practices
The wide gap in voting support for significant E&S resolutions between US and European asset managers persists, but it narrowed slightly in 2025.
While six major US asset managers (BlackRock, State Street, Vanguard, J.P. Morgan, Invesco, and Dimensional) showed an average support of 18% - a modest rise from 17% in 2024 but far below the 46% peak in 2021—their European counterparts (Amundi, Fidelity, Legal & General, NBIM, Schroders, and UBS) maintained a strikingly high average of 91%, consistent over the past five years.", explained Lindsey Stewart, director of institutional investor content at Morningstar.
Key takeaways from the study include:
- The disparity in voting support between governance proposals and environmental & social (E&S) proposals continued to widen. In the 2025 proxy year, average support for conventional governance proposals was 35% (compared to 36% in 2024), while support for conventional E&S proposals was 16% (down from 20% in 2024).
- The proportion of environmental and social (E&S) resolutions receiving less than 5% support has increased from 8% to 27% over five years, despite recent SEC regulations.
- E&S proposals that address topics a significant proportion of shareholders view as material are becoming a rarity. There were only 30 significant E&S resolutions in the 2025 proxy year, compared with over 100 in each of the previous five years.
Quelle: Morningstar Institutional Insights
