The day began outside of the Wells Fargo World HQ on Montgomery Street where activists painted a huge street mural calling on Wells Fargo to defund Line 3, a proposed pipeline that would route nearly a million barrels of dirty tar sands per day through Anishinaabe territory, causing irreparable harm to indigenous communities and lands. […]
In BlackRock’s 2021 Stewardship Expectations report, the asset manager finally acknowledged that voting against management and supporting shareholder proposals often leads to positive changes at companies. In January 2021, BlackRock expanded its voting criteria and announced that it will hold directors accountable when their companies fail to address climate change in their business plans. In […]
The full text and full list of signatories of the letter are below. Eloy Terena, Legal Coordinator of the Association of Brazil’s Indigenous Peoples (APIB), and one of the letter’s signers said: “BlackRock’s investments have an impact on our lives and our communities, and the company’s leadership, therefore, has a responsibility for our future. If […]
The Dirtiest Oil The report points to the carbon intensity of tar sands oil–extracting and refining it makes it 3.2-4.5 times more polluting than conventional oil pulled from North America. A recent report in Nature confirmed that extracting all tar sands oil would use up almost one-third of the planet’s remaining carbon budget to keep the world […]
This is an analysis of BlackRock’s “natural capital” commentary, human rights commentary, and relevant climate, human rights, and “natural capital” information given in its 2021 engagement priorities. Notably, BlackRock directly acknowledges the interconnectedness of climate change, ecosystem protection, and Indigenous rights and the fact that corporate activities can harm all three – a first for […]
Keep your word, BlackRock: use your power and vote to save our climate at upcoming AGMs. Dear European BlackRock Executives, You’ve said you want companies to set rigorous targets to tackle climate chaos. Now, with AGM season coming up, it’s time to follow through. If a company doesn’t have a clear climate plan – […]
Neither Larry Fink’s January letters to CEOs and clients, nor the climate memo that BlackRock released in early February spelled out this “ambition”. In those documents, BlackRock’s focus was on BlackRock’s expectations of other companies – how they should consider managing “the impacts that [climate] risks have on their business and demonstrate preparedness to operate […]
New research released today reveals that US investors, particularly, asset managers, still provide an astounding 58 percent of institutional investments – roughly $602 billion – to the global coal industry. Vanguard shamefully tops the list as the world’s largest investor in coal with nearly $86 billion in investments. This is the first time Vanguard has […]
BlackRock’s words sound good. There are five pages of them, including “just” and “equitable” as well as “resilient” and “sustainable.” But, yet again, there is no mention of companies engaging in tar sands destruction, oil expansion, fracking, or deforestation. BlackRock says it “may” vote for climate-friendly shareholder proposals, and it “may” vote against company board […]
BlackRock sends a number of mixed signals with today’s memo. On the one hand, it communicates an important and necessary message about the need for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions, writing that companies “should strive to limit warming to 1.5° C to achieve an ultimate goal of net zero GHG emissions by mid-century in order […]
On January 26, Larry Fink released his annual letter to CEOs alongside a letter to clients signed by BlackRock’s Global Executive Team. Similar to last year, both letters are dedicated to BlackRock’s plans to address the urgent, systemic climate crisis and its plan for operating within our changing world. Some of the key things BlackRock […]
UPDATE: Watch the full action webinar here. Studies have shown that Indigenous peoples are critical players in the fight to protect the world’s forests and halt global temperature increases. In 2020 BlackRock hinted it would take new holistic approaches on deforestation and biodiversity in 2021, and yet, its newly announced net zero commitments failed to […]
350.org co-founder and long time supporter of our work targeting the funders of the climate crisis Bill McKibben compared BlackRock to a major league baseball player who was recently voted M.V.P., but in truth it’s batting average is barely above bush league. To continue the baseball analogy, BlackRock finally stepped up to the climate plate […]
In the middle of the night on Dec. 10th, BlackRock published a new report outlining its guiding expectations for company engagement in 2021. The announcement, similar to most news from BlackRock, has gained some attention across financial media, including from the Financial Times, Bloomberg, and Reuters. We dug into the details to pull out what […]
On December 10th, just two days before the 5th anniversary of the Paris Climate Agreement, 18 NGOs released a new report titled “Five Years Lost – How Finance is Blowing the Paris Carbon Budget” exposing the role of financial institutions in funding 12 of the most devastating fossil fuel projects that are currently planned or […]
On the same day as the EU’s own Ombudswoman released a report confirming the EU was in conflict when it awarded a green finance contract to BlackRock, a new report was released highlighting the many ways this “BlackRock Model” is flawed. The story was covered in the Wall Street Journal, Guardian, Financial Times, Reuters, and […]
As the outgoing Trump administration rushes last minute plans to drill in the Arctic, a powerful new video is making the rounds talking about the funders standing behind the oil companies. Singling out BlackRock, whose CEO Larry Fink says the right things on climate change and limiting investments in fossil fuels, yet remains the top […]
In response to statements from BlackRock CEO Larry Fink welcoming the move by the UK to make the disclosure of climate-related financial risk mandatory, Moira Birss, Climate Finance Director at Amazon watch, core partner of the BlackRock’s Big Problem campaign, and Co-Coordinator of the Stop the Money Pipeline Policy Team, said: “Larry Fink is right: […]
The European Commission did not properly consider conflicts of interest when it granted a contract to BlackRock to advise on the EU’s new sustainable finance agenda for banks, according to an opinion by the European Ombudsman published today. The conflict arises from the fact that BlackRock is the world’s largest investor in fossil fuels and […]
Did you recently show up at a BlackRock’s office demanding climate justice? Did you call Larry Fink and ask him to vote for the climate and stop investing in fossil fuels? Share the campaign on social media? Watch the webinar from October 20 and learn more about the strategy and tactics behind the BlackRock’s […]