After Talking About Net-Zero Goals, Black Rock CEO Now Talking About Selling Fossil Shares

[hatrack]

Talk, talk, talk, talk, talk . . .

BlackRock, the world’s biggest investment fund manager, has threatened to sell shares in the worst corporate pollutersin a bid to support the goal of net zero carbon dioxide emissions by 2050.

Larry Fink, BlackRock’s chief executive, said the investor would ask companies whose shares it holds to disclose their plans to achieve net zero emissions. The new approach is set out in Fink’s annual letter to CEOs around the world. BlackRock could then divest from polluting companies in its actively managed funds – which represent about a tenth of its assets – if they did not improve.

EDIT

The asset manager last year pledged to divest from companies who made more than 25% of their revenues from thermal coal, but the latest decision to threaten further divestments represents a stronger signal particularly to oil and gas extractors who do not have a plan for net zero emissions. However, the company will retain vast holdings in fossil fuel companies because of its role in providing funds that passively track investment indices, about 90% of its holdings. Even after the thermal coal pledge BlackRock owns assets worth $85bn in coal-producing companies.

Environmental activists welcomed BlackRock’s decision to consider divesting from the worst climate laggards. However, Gaurav Madan, a senior campaigner at Friends of the Earth, said its actions, including the net zero pledge, were “too little, too late”. “This doesn’t rise to the visionary leadership we need from the world’s largest investor in coal, oil and gas, and deforestation-linked commodities,” he said.

EDIT

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/jan/26/asset-manager-blackrock-threatens-to-sell-shares-in-worst-climate-polluters

[efhmc]

1. Wonder if it really is "too little too late".