Shareholder proposal trends 2026

Harvard Law School Governance Forum includes an analysis of the 2026 shareholder proposals and concluded that it is “difficult to rely on this year’s shareholder proposal experience as a reliable indicator of future trends.”

Why is 2026 an outlier? The SEC removed itself from the process, proposal numbers shrank from 951 last year to 789 in 2026, 49% were governance proposals, just like in 2025 no environmental proposals were approved in 2026, and no anti- ESG proposals were approved.

In total 7% of all shareholder proposals were approved.