Responsible investment 2024
Government Pension Fund Global
Published: 6 February 2025
Long-term value
Our task is to generate the highest possible financial return in a responsible manner. In 2024, we made progress in line with our 2025 Climate action plan, made further renewable energy investments and increased our transparency. CEO pay remained a priority for us and we advocated for simpler and longer-term incentives. To mitigate financial risk for the fund, we divested from companies with unsustainable business models.
Chief Governance and Compliance Officer Carine Smith Ihenacho and Global Head of Active Ownership Wilhelm Mohn presented the highlights of our responsible investment management in 2024.
2024 at a glance
In 2024, we voted on 110,656 resolutions at 11,154 to express our views as an , promote long-term value creation by companies and safeguard the fund's assets. We also published our second standalone voting review.
As a shareholder in 8,659 companies, we need to prioritise our company dialogues. We are in regular dialogue with our largest investments. In 2024, we held a total of 3,313 meetings with 1,342 companies.
Overall, we held 1,986 meetings with 950 companies in 2024 where governance and sustainability topics were discussed, covering 60 percent of our company meetings and 65 percent of the value of the equity portfolio.
In 2024, we divested from 49 companies. Of these, 27 decisions involved companies that entered the fund's benchmark index during the year. We identified companies with significantly heightened risks across a variety of sustainability topics, including potential violations of human and labour rights, insufficient management of corruption risk, and business models highly exposed to environmental risk. Altogether, we have made 575 divestment decisions since 2012.
Our voting in 2024
Voting is one of our most important tools of influence as an owner. We vote to express our views as an owner, promote long-term value creation by companies and safeguard the fund's assets. In 2024, we started sharing our voting intentions through the Bloomberg voting platform and communicated more detailed rationales on selected votes for the first time.
11,154
97%
3
We voted in line with the board's recommendation in 95 percent of all resolutions
We voted against management in 5 percent of the resolutions in 2024. The rationale for votes against are expressed in our position papers and our global voting guidelines.
Top reasons for voting against management:
- Changes to governing documents
- CEO remuneration
- Combined chair / CEO
Company dialogues
We engage in regular dialogue with our portfolio companies to promote good corporate governance, sustainable business models and responsible business practices.
Invested in 8,659 companies and market participant in 70 countries
We engage with relevant international organisations, standard setters and regulators to contribute to the development and adoption of standards on corporate governance, responsible business conduct and sustainability disclosures. We also participate in the development of best practices for responsible investment.
Climate and nature disclosures
We engage with our portfolio companies to support value creation and manage the fund’s climate and nature risk exposure. We expect companies to address material climate and nature issues in their governance, risk management, disclosures and stakeholder engagement.
Explore the full report
Our task is to generate the highest possible financial return in a responsible manner. In 2024, we made progress in line with our 2025 Climate action plan, made further renewable energy investments and increased our transparency. CEO pay remained a priority for us and we advocated for simpler and longer-term incentives. To mitigate financial risk for the fund, we divested from companies with unsustainable business models.