In the wake of another failure of the world’s governments to agree on a plan to save our future from the climate crisis, you may have missed a quieter story. The last few weeks have seen a string of announcements from major financial institutions making moves to get out of the worst fossil fuels such […]
As the US saw student-led climate strikes again cross the country, many actions stopped or started at the world’s biggest investor in fossil fuels. In New York, a sub-group of the Sunrise Movement called “Sunrise Kids”, supported by many others, held a Play-In for Climate Justice in front of BlackRock’s main headquarters. Kids spoke out […]
Reposted from the XR Global website: Today in London, activists gathered out front of the worlds biggest investment firm BlackRock to engage in a dramatic, creative and nonviolent protest to challenge BlackRock as a main player driving the climate crisis and deforestation around the world. Activists dumped a pile of wood ashes (waste collected from […]
New data reveals that large institutional investors in the US are stalling progress to tackle the social and economic risks of climate change, despite committing publicly to climate action. This is compared to investors in Europe who are more prepared to hold the worst polluters accountable. Analysis by ShareAction, the responsible investment campaign group, reveals […]
Climate activists as part of the global Extinction Rebellion movement targeted BlackRock in the City of London Monday morning. They glued themselves to the doors while others staged a mock dinner party with rolled up banknotes on their plates, in front of a powerful statement from American Indigenous Chief Seattle. Those participating included a former […]
The month of September, 2019 gave much of the world hope, as an unprecedented amount of climate solutions activism circled the planet, culminating in the world’s (and many individual country’s) biggest ever climate rallies during the Climate Strike. But it’s safe to say the issues management folks at BlackRock did not have a great time. […]
On Friday a record 4,000,000 + were out in the streets in nearly every country on earth demanding urgent action on the climate emergency. Marches in Sydney, Germany, London broke new records for turnout, and thousands of other cities and towns participated as part of the Global #ClimateStrike. In San Francisco, a crowd estimated to […]
During a busy Climate Week in New York City, a delegation of Indigenous peoples delivered 260,000 petition signatures to BlackRock demanding they stop funding Amazon deforestation and climate destruction. None other than BlackRock’s CEO Larry Fink had to make his way through the protesters to get to work this morning. Our message: We’ll keep coming […]
We wouldn’t want to be BlackRock’s PR advisor this past month as the company continues to get hit with bad news from all sides. Bill McKibben this week let the world in on our strategy to fight climate chaos by disrupting the biggest sources of fossil finance. In “Money is the Oxygen on Which the […]
Today, in response to the findings of a new report by Majority Action, people with New York Communities for Change (NYCC), Mothers Out Front (MOF), Sunrise Movement NYC, Sierra Club, 350Brooklyn, Extinction Rebelion-MA, and Mass Divest gathered outside BlackRock offices in New York City and Boston. The report, which assesses major asset managers’ 2019 shareholder […]
Within only 2 weeks, an amazing 59 actions happened all over the world to protect the Amazon rainforest and its Indigenous peoples yesterday. The organizers including our partners at Amazon Watch encouraged actions at Brazilian embassies or the corporate offices of the biggest companies driving or funding destructive practices there. BlackRock is at the top […]
“We may be witnessing the tragedy of our lifetimes with the Amazon rainforest in flames and in peril.”, our partners at Amazon Watch wrote this week. While Brazil’s far right President Bolsonaro ludicrously blamed NGO’s for starting the 80,000+ fires burning this week, he’s made his five pronged agenda to destroy the Amazon very clear: […]
Earlier this month, the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis released a new report slamming BlackRock’s high exposure to fossil fuels in its investment products. Among other key findings, the report concludes that BlackRock’s failure to adequately address fossil fuel sector under-performance has lost investors over US$90 billion in estimated value destruction and opportunity […]
Yesterday two of the country’s fastest growing grassroots groups – Extinction Rebellion and Mothers Out Front – sent a bold message to BlackRock staff at one of their main US offices. The Boston “die-in” was organized to, in the words of one local organizer, “set up a crime scene because ecocide is criminal”. The organizers […]
There’s a new detailed report out today from analysts at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) and it’s a doozy. The report shows that BlackRock continues to ignore the serious financial risks of putting money into fossil fuel-dependent companies. Why this is important: Given that BlackRock is the world’s largest asset manager, […]
Big news out of Europe last week, with another of the world’s major backers of fossil fuels making the commitment to divest from the sector on climate grounds, soon. The government-backed European Investment Bank (EIB) – the world’s largest multilateral lender – just released a draft policy that would see the bank stop funding fossils […]
Larry Fink’s response to criticism at his annual shareholder meeting last month proved one thing: BlackRock’s senior leadership knows about our campaign, is upset, yet is choosing to ignore, deflect, and dismiss our criticisms. Last month’s BlackRock shareholder meeting in New York was a gong show. The previous year saw a sleepy affair with fewer […]
Today we released a new mini-report on BlackRock’s sustainable ESG funds. See the full report here. BlackRock is the largest asset manager in the world, with $6.5 trillion under management. Increasingly, BlackRock bills itself as a leader in responsible investing. “Sustainability,” BlackRock says,“is something investors can no longer afford to ignore.” Yet the financial giant […]
The petition calls on BlackRock, Vanguard and Fidelity to use their immense voting power responsibly by supporting key climate-related shareholder resolutions and voting against directors who are not serving long-term investors’ best interests at nine major upcoming shareholder meetings. Photos from the petition delivery are available here. The groups, many of which are part of […]
You can read more about this story in the San Francisco Chronicle. Alfred Brownell, a Liberian human rights lawyer and recipient of the 2019 Goldman Environmental Prize for Africa, and a group of environmental activists protested at the San Francisco headquarters of global asset manager BlackRock this morning. With music and theatrics, including a dozen […]