For those following the financial sector’s approach to climate change, Larry Fink’s annual letters in the past few years have served as a barometer for measuring Wall Street’s aptitude for management of climate-related risks. Unfortunately, this year’s letter is cause for concern, with signals throughout that Wall Street’s former climate darling is dragging his feet […]
In 2020, Fink made waves with his landmark announcement that BlackRock would place sustainability at the center of its investment approach. Three years on BlackRock has yet to close the gap between its commitment and its actual business practices. While the 2020 letter represented an important first step, a number of global financial players — […]
BlackRock did not release Larry Fink’s annual letter in line with past publication patterns after all. Instead, Fink took the stage at the World Economic Forum in Davos last week and said that his letter was to be expected some time in the first quarter and that the focus would be on ‘the concept of […]
In 1988 — coincidentally the year BlackRock was founded — Jim Hansen testified in front of the U.S. Congress about the dire consequences of global warming. It is now the end of 2022 and the impacts of the escalating climate crisis are felt even more direly. Society’s continued dependence on fossil fuels has led to […]
New York City’s net zero by 2040 pledge is threatened by BlackRock’s looming failure to honor its own net zero commitments. The comptroller is therefore reassessing the city’s business relationships, with BlackRock as the city’s largest asset manager responsible for $43 billion in assets topping the list. “The fundamental contradiction between BlackRock’s statements and actions […]
Over the past few months, one of the main financial regulators in the US, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), has proposed a series of rules to help investors better understand the risks climate change poses to their investments. ESG (environmental, social, and governance) investing has gained popularity in recent years, as investors feel compelled […]
Timeline of selected anti-ESG attacks and BlackRock’s response – full graphic here While there is legitimate criticism of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing, the relentless campaign maligning ESG has nothing to do with standardization of fund labels, combating greenwashing, demands for increased transparency, or any other valid critique. It is a massive oppositional […]
Last week, BlackRock filed comments with the SEC calling for a dramatic weakening of the SEC’s proposal to mandate climate risk disclosure by public companies. The asset manager’s leadership repeatedly insists that BlackRock views climate risk as investment risk, yet the proposed amendments to the SEC rule create gaping loopholes that damage the scope and […]
Happily, the Race to Zero campaign even divides the criteria into two types: the “starting line” (the minimum criteria that every signatory must meet) and the “leadership practices” (the roadmap for entities to take a leadership role to accelerate the transition to a decarbonized economy). When it comes to the “starting line”, most significantly, the […]
Last year, BlackRock became a signatory to the Net Zero Asset Managers’ Initiative, the stated goal of which is to achieve “net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 or sooner, in line with global efforts to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.” The latest IPCC report makes it crystal clear that any kind of fossil […]
This piece was written by Sierra Club Foundation board of directors member Paul Rissman and was originally published in Sierra Magazine on April 26, 2022. For any company, being seen as trustworthy is critical to success. This is even more true for banks, whose core business is based on being entrusted with funds from customers […]
The latest IPCC report centered on the mitigation of climate change has one top-line, red-alert takeaway for BlackRock: expanding coal, oil, and gas production is out of the question. In order to limit global warming to 1.5°C and avert the most devastating effects of climate change, financiers need to immediately stop investing in fossil fuel […]
From Saudi Arabia’s assault on Yemen to murders of Indigenous environmental defenders in the oil-rich Amazon to the United States’ industry-supported invasion of Iraq and Libya, the oil and gas industry is an inherent driver of conflict, violence, and human rights abuses. Russia’s sales of oil and gas account for 40% of the country’s national […]
With a whopping $109 billion worth of bonds and shares in global coal companies, BlackRock tops the list, followed by Vanguard, with a sizable $101 billion. Unfortunately, this doesn’t come as much of a surprise. The two asset managers’ investments in the coal industry are part of the reason why the BlackRock and Vanguard’s Big […]
Executive Summary: In early February, BlackRock published a new letter to clients on how to manage the energy transition to a net zero economy. Even amidst distracting partisan backlash from Texas and West Virginia, BlackRock confidently stated that it is no longer a question of if the energy transition to a decarbonized economy will happen, […]
Last week, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink released his annual letter to CEOs. Since Fink’s first letter that addressed climate change in 2020, confronting climate change has become a central theme in his public rhetoric and in BlackRock’s marketing. In his 2020 letter, Fink pledged to put sustainability at the center of BlackRock’s business, which was […]
So, Vanguard has finally broken its silence and released its first ever coal policy, which, in a shocking twist, actually acknowledges climate risk. Wow! Welcome to 2010, Vanguard. In a perfunctory exercise to satisfy a TCFD mandate, the company vaguely outlined its disclosure expectations for portfolio companies with significant coal exposure. The news came quietly […]
In his public rhetoric, CEO Larry Fink presents BlackRock as a company committed to a goal of lowering global emissions. In reality, the investor just handed billions to a corporation that was the world’s leading upstream oil & gas producer in 2020 and that – according to the newly released Global Oil & Gas Exit […]
Throughout COP26, Larry Fink has been commenting on what BlackRock’s role should be in reducing global emissions, consistently painting a picture that the firm can only do so much and is already taking adequate action. The BlackRock’s Big Problem campaign is a network of NGOs, financial advocates, researchers, academics, and grassroots groups who know that […]
Click here to find an event near you as part of the Defund Climate Chaos day of action on this Friday, October 29th! As part of the runup to this critical global conference, we’ve seen a massive influx of actions to hold the world’s two largest asset managers, BlackRock and Vanguard, accountable. From vigils and […]