Financial institutions like to pay lip service to the climate catastrophe to burnish their public image. Doubtless, that’s what BlackRock chair Larry Fink, who oversees more money than the combined GDPs of Japan and Germany, had in mind when he declared four years ago that “climate risk is investment risk.”
At the time, the announcement shocked financial observers, who tend to wait for Fink’s annual letter to CEOs as if it’s a new set of commandments. They speculated that Fink’s new environmental focus could rewrite the rules of global finance, putting BlackRock’s more than $10 trillion in assets under management behind “greener” finance.
The ensuing years saw a concentrated pushback from investors, lawmakers, and businesses as firms with less-than-green credentials went into panic mode. Republican state lawmakers wrote letters, state governments began blacklisting BlackRock from public funds, and House leaders filed subpoenas, putting the asset manager on the back foot.
In the wake of the backlash, BlackRock is voting for the fewest number of environmental, social, and governance–related (ESG) proposals in years. It has even begun actively playing up its fossil fuel investments.
Four years on from Fink’s forthright statement, the world is getting a sobering reminder that as far as the investors at the heart of the global financial system are concerned, saving the world isn’t really the point. As for Larry Fink, he’s stopped even pretending to care.
For true believers in green finance, Fink’s open letter in 2020 seemed like…
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Auteur: Justin Villamil
