BlackRock is officially out of the so-called “Net Zero” coalition of top corporations who pledge to reach zero-carbon emissions by 2050 – a significant blow to the corporate push to embrace progressive policies on energy conservation, On The Money has learned.
The investment giant, led by billionaire CEO Larry Fink, announced in a letter to clients on Thursday that it is leaving the United Nations-sponsored “Net Zero Asset Managers Initiative” as pressure grows on big corporations to reverse their woke business agendas.
BlackRock said its “involvement in organizations where various companies pledge efforts to reduce carbon emissions subjected us to legal inquiries from various public officials. Following our routine review of our continued participation in these groups, we are writing to notify of our formal withdrawal from the Net Zero Asset Managers (NZAM) initiative,” according to the letter, which was obtained by On The Money.
On The Money reported earlier this week that Fink was poised to leave the Net Zero Initiative.
The exit comes as others have announced plans to leave a sister UN coalition for mega banks. In recent days, the nation’s largest banks – JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley – said they are dropping their membership from the UN climate coalition.
BlackRock’s departure is more significant. The world’s largest investment fund, with more than $10 trillion in assets under management, was a leader in so-called ESG, or Environmental Social Governance investing. Fink and other top executives had evangelized on the need to use the company’s investing might to force corporations to reduce their carbon footprint, joining Net Zero in 2021.
But soon thereafter, a swift political backlash developed; sustainable energy investing faced stiff opposition from GOP politicians who ran large state pension funds in red states such as Texas and Florida. Rising inflation came after the COVID lockdowns ended, and higher gas prices following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine made sustainability efforts politically toxic.
Members of Congress even suggested that the NetZero Alliance violated antitrust laws since it forced corporations to operate in concert to achieve what they called dubious aims of climate sustainability while causing working class people to suffer.
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