From the article linked to below: “Today, after more than a year of increasing pressure from climate activists, investors, legislators, and thought leaders, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, in his highly-anticipated annual letter to CEOs and to clients, announced a sweeping new set of policies which aim to put climate change and sustainability at the center of BlackRock’s business model. BlackRock is the world’s largest asset manager with almost $7 trillion in assets under management as of Q3 2019. …..The announcement is a major shift for BlackRock, which previously had failed to take meaningful action on climate, and is a very important step in the right direction as the world faces increasing risk from climate change. Massive capital shifts away from fossil fuels and deforestation-risk commodities are necessary to mitigate the worst of the climate crisis and set the world on a path toward sustainability.
As the world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock must play a leading role in, as Larry Fink put it, “fundamentally reshaping finance to deal with climate change.” Today’s announcement begins that reshaping, but is not enough. BlackRock must implement additional shifts of capital out of fossil fuels. It must acknowledge and take action on the fact that its portfolios, which still contain fossil fuels and deforestation-drivers, are actively contributing to climate change and thus contribute the risk that climate change poses to the global financial system. It must clearly define what it means by “sustainable” and improve its criteria around ESG to be Paris-compliant or better. And it must engage with companies in a concrete, transparent, time-bound way with consequences for inaction like voting against board members.”
Read the full article from here: Our in-depth analysis of BlackRock’s climate announcement