🗳️ PROPOSAL: Retirement Plan Climate Risk Disclosure | COMPANY: Adobe (ADBE)
FILER: As You Sow
PROXY MEMO: As You Sow memo
ACTION ITEM:
This proposal requests that Adobe report on whether and how its retirement plan investment options consider climate-related financial risks, including whether plan participants are exposed to companies whose activities contribute to systemic climate risk.
IMPACT ON DIVERSIFIED SHAREHOLDERS:
The proposal explicitly links retirement plan design to long-term investment outcomes, particularly for participants with extended time horizons, explaining that “[p]rior studies estimate that unmitigated climate change will decrease world gross domestic product (GDP) by $23 trillion by 2050; [while] recent studies indicate the long-term costs may be six times higher than previously estimated.”
The proposal raises the question of whether default or commonly selected investment options expose beneficiaries to companies whose emissions contribute to broader economic risks associated with climate change. As the proposal notes, because retirement plan participants are typically diversified investors with long-term horizons, these broader economic effects may influence their overall returns.
