At 11 p.m. eastern on April 20, 2022, Vanguard quietly published a blogpost on its website outlining the firm’s current approach to climate change. The post contains no new commitments or details on Vanguard’s part. Perhaps the only truly noteworthy aspect of this post is its timing — Vanguard published it a mere 14 hours after the launch of the Vanguard S.O.S. campaign.
While publicizing climate efforts is always a good thing for accountability, the post lacks both substance and specifics. So, following in the footsteps of shareholder advocacy organization As You Sow, the Vanguard S.O.S. campaign decided to add a few necessary edits to Vanguard’s post.
![A screenshot of Vanguard's post on climate change with added red edits. The original text reads: "Investment products that can help investors manage certain climate-related risks and opportunities, whether by enabling them to exclude companies involved in the fossil fuel value chain or by investing in those better poised for a low-carbon future. Participation in market-based efforts that seek to facilitate an effective transition to a low-carbon economy and mitigate risk to investors." "Investment produces is circled and an arrow points to the comment "This should be a DEFAULT offering — not niche. ESG funds make up less than 1% of VG's total AUM." "Exclude companies" is underlines and a arrow points to the comment: "Vanguard MUST implement a comprehensive coal exit policy that applies to all its funds to avoid a future with [underlined] billions is stranded assets." The last edit boxes "market-based efforts" and the comment reads: "offsets, carbon removals, and nature-based solutions CANNOT stand in place of [underlined:] necessary absolute emission reductions."](https://vanguard-sos.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Vanguard-climate-doc-markup-carousel-04-v2.png)
![A screenshot of Vanguard's post on climate change with added red edits. The original text reads: A commitment to working with global policymakers and regulators in this arena on behalf of long-term investors. A set of corporate goals and actions to make progress toward reducing Vanguard’s own carbon emissions and reaching carbon neutrality as a company by 2025." "policymakers and regulators" is underlined and a red arrow points to a comment above reading "Vanguard should be publicly and enthusiastically supporting regulatory efforts, including climate disclosure rules, which increase the transparency, availability, and consistency of climate risk reporting." "A set of corporate goals" is boxed in red with an accompanying comment "Still waiting on those interim emissions reductions targets to be publicized..." "Vanguard's own carbon emissions" is underlined in red with an arrow pointing to the final comment" Nice, but essentially meaningless stacked up against the BILLIONS Vanguard funnels into the [underlined:] highest-polluting sectors of the economy."](https://vanguard-sos.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Vanguard-climate-doc-markup-carousel-05-v2.png)
Resources used as the basis of our critique:
- Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report press release
- Majority Action — Climate in the Boardroom report
- Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis report on Vanguard
- Global Coal Exit List — Investor report
- U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres statement on coal and stranded assets