The Problem: Deforestation
Our forests are disappearing
BlackRock is the world’s largest investor in companies tied to deforestation. Clearing our forests accelerates climate change and threatens the rights of Indigenous peoples, traditional landowners, and local communities.
BlackRock funds deforestation
From the Amazon to Borneo to the boreal forests of Northern Alberta, BlackRock consistently backs industries that cut and burn billions of trees. Deforestation releases carbon and drives plant and animal species to the brink of extinction.
Rampant development in forest regions also displaces local communities. Industrial activities often undermine the rights of Indigenous peoples, who are not given the opportunity to consent or reject projects on their territories, or who are threatened, coerced, or forced from their traditional lands.
Case Study
Amazon deforestation
The Amazon is the world's largest rainforest. It’s critical for biodiversity and climate regulation, because it ‘pumps’ water into the air – like a heart – to produce rain and cool the earth. The Amazon is the world's largest carbon sink, storing an estimated 150-200 billion tons of carbon. It also houses at least 10% of the planet’s known biodiversity, and is home to over 400 distinct groups of Indigenous peoples, who have protected this crucial ecosystem for centuries.
Solution
Climate change is a complex problem that demands integrated action.
This is just one of five financial solutions that BlackRock must implement now to help solve this problem.Adopt a global baseline climate standard for ESG
BlackRock must ensure that its “sustainable” funds are truly sustainable. Fossil fuels, forest-risk commodity companies that have not demonstrably implemented zero-deforestation commitments, and companies that drive catastrophic climate change will never be sustainable and must be removed from all ESG funds.
FAQs
Answers to common questions about how BlackRock and the finance industry fuel climate change and environmental destruction.
We are moving the giant
Climate action groups around the globe have joined forces to fight #fossilfinance. Take a stand against asset managers like BlackRock and take action in your community.