*

Backs 4% of environmental, social shareholder resolutions

*

Support compares with prior year's 6.7% support

*

Total support 11% from 9% driven by governance issues

By Simon Jessop

LONDON, Aug 21 (Reuters) - BlackRock ( BLK ), the world's

biggest asset manager, cut its support for shareholder proposals

linked to environmental and social issues in the most recent

annual general meeting season, backing just 4%, a report on its

global voting record showed.

Despite the number of environmental- and social-related

proposals increasing year-on-year to 493 from 455, BlackRock ( BLK )

said most had been rejected for much the same reasons as in

previous years. In 2023 it had supported 6.7% of such proposals.

"In our assessment, the majority of these (proposals) were

over-reaching, lacked economic merit, or sought outcomes that

were unlikely to promote long-term shareholder value," it said

in the report on Wednesday.

"A significant percentage were focused on business risks

that companies already had processes in place to address, making

them redundant."

Ahead of the season, BlackRock ( BLK ) had said it would push boards

on their financial resilience.

Also driving the number lower were the growing number of

resolutions aimed at forcing companies to roll back their plans

to manage sustainability risks, including retooling their

operations to be in line with global climate goals.

BlackRock ( BLK ) said it did not support any of the 88 proposals

that fell into this category.

In total this year it supported 20 proposals. Of them, four

were related to climate and natural capital, concerning

disclosures at Berkshire Hathaway ( BRK/A ), Denny's Corporation

, Jack in the Box and Wingstop ( WING ).

More broadly, BlackRock's ( BLK ) support for shareholder

resolutions increased to 11% from 9% - or 99 out of 867 against

71 out of 811 in the prior year - driven by the firm's backing

for more governance-related resolutions.

"The proposals we supported sought to enhance minority

shareholders' rights, for example, by introducing simple

majority voting. Market support for governance proposals also

increased relative to last year," it said.

Across the market, overall support for ESG proposals was

flat at 23%, industry tracker Morningstar said, while support

for environmental and social resolutions fell to 16% from 19%.

Shareholder resolutions aside, BlackRock ( BLK ) said it voted on

more than 169,200 proposals globally, backing management's

position 88% of the time, in line with previous years.

It also backed the election of board directors 90% of the

time, although it declined to support 128 proposals at 104

companies because of concerns about inadequate disclosure or

effective board oversight of climate-related risks.