Reports
How the financial industry funds destruction
Research and reports detailing how BlackRock and Big Finance are fuelling a global crisis – and how they can lead change.
HIJACKED: Exposing BlackRock’s Grip on the EU’s Climate Finance Plans
Reclaim Finance and the Observatoire des multinationales have revealed the extent of BlackRock’s influence over the EU’s climate finance plans. The report, entitled “Hijacked: Exposing BlackRock’s Grip on the EU’s Climate Finance Plans”, finds that the world’s largest asset manager sits at the heart of a lobbying web with privileged access to European institutions. The report raises the alarm on the climate rulebook defended by BlackRock and friend groups. While opposing any kind of (even minimal) climate-related restrictions that would be imposed on financial players and their investment choices, the alternative they push forward is highly problematic.
Investing in Amazon Crude II: How the Big Three Asset Managers Actively Fund the Amazon Oil Industry
Three of the world's largest asset managers – BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street – with trillions of dollars under their control, invest in oil companies with horrific environmental and human rights records across the Amazon Basin.
Right now, these asset managers hold a large amount of risk by actively contributing to Indigenous and human rights abuses, forest destruction, biodiversity loss, and climate chaos. The "Big Three" can't claim to be climate champions while steering client money into oil drilling in the rainforest.
SLOW BURN: The asset managers betting against the planet
Reclaim Finance's new scorecard on leading asset managers’ climate commitments, focusing on their approach to the coal sector. Produced with four partner NGOs from across Europe and North America, the report compares 29 asset managers, with a focus on the European market. The authors reveal that despite 16 asset managers holding long-term climate commitments, nearly all are failing to take the first step to making them a reality: exiting coal.
BlackRock’s Net-Zero Commitment Put To The Test
A new report from Reclaim Finance shows that BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, holds over $75 billion in thirty major tar sands production companies, all of which plan to develop new reserves of the world’s dirtiest form of oil. BlackRock also holds $3.7 billion in three pipeline companies engaged in the construction of controversial pipelines transporting tar sands oil from Alberta Canada, including Line 3.
One Year On: BlackRock Still Addicted to Fossil Fuels
One year after BlackRock’s CEO promised sustainability would be at the heart of investment decisions, a report by NGOs Reclaim Finance and Urgewald has revealed that BlackRock remains a massive investor in coal companies, even in those with expansion plans related to coal. The analysis unveils huge gaps in BlackRock’s policy, both in its coal policy and in the complete absence of a policy on other fossil fuels.
Fossil Fuel Lobbyists Are Dominating Climate Policies During COVID-19
New research from InfluenceMap shows the oil and gas sector to have dominated climate-related policy battles throughout COVID-19 crisis. Interventions from the industry seeking deregulation and support for fossil fuels in recovery packages have drowned out pro-climate interventions from the non-fossil corporate sector.
The New Money Trust: How Large Money Managers Control Our Economy and What We Can Do About It
This paper will discuss the concerns that the outsized growth of the fund industry, especially its three largest participants, poses for corporate governance, competition, and financial market stability. It then explores some policy solutions to address the financial risks and anticompetitiveimpacts of large asset managers.
How Dodd Frank Can Address Wall Street’s Role In The Climate Crisis
In this paper, Graham Steele argues that a sustainable shift to green energy requires a significant reallocation of this capital and that the Dodd-Frank Act provides the regulatory tools to require financial institutions to internalize the financial risks associated with lending and investments that drive climate change.
Fueling the Fire
This report finds the fossil fuel industry not only has been a primary driver of climate change but also has harmed the health of Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) communities for decades and has made these populations highly vulnerable to severe illness and death from COVID-19.
2018 Asset Manager Climate Scorecard
A new report analyzing the world’s thirteen largest asset managers’ U.S. proxy voting in carbon-intensive industries reveals that they’re exerting limited and uneven influence over management, despite calls from shareholders to de-carbonize corporate business models.
Sustainable Finance Policy Engagement
This research has mapped out intensive lobbying on European sustainable finance policy, led by industry groups representing the finance and corporate (real economy) sectors. Whilst a small number of financial institutions have pushed for ambitious policy, the majority have remained silent or stated only high-level support.
Voting Matters
Climate change is one of the highest priorities facing investors. In this report, we’ve examined how 57 of the world’s largest asset managers voted on 65 shareholder resolutions linked to climate change. While there is encouraging improvement when it comes to voting for climate change resolutions, many still shy away from holding companies account. Investors voting power is the most powerful tool they have, it is vital that all investors use it.
