“Few things will impact capital allocation decisions – and thereby the long-term value of your company – more than how effectively you navigate the global energy transition in the years ahead,” Fink wrote to his fellow chief executives. 18.Īnd the very day Fink published his letter, West Virginia cutting ties with the asset manager over BlackRock’s investments in Chinese companies and its 2021 decision to push clients toward net zero emission goals that would harm the coal, oil and natural gas industries.īut Fink believes the worldwide transition from fossil fuels to renewables is indisputable. ![]() “Fink is insisting on continuing to prop up dirty fuels like fracked gas and peddling the outdated and dangerous view that gas has a place in the energy transition, despite the scientific consensus that we need to stop expanding fossil fuels immediately,” Ben Cushing, a campaign manager at the environmental group Sierra Club, said in a statement issued Jan. At a time when financial firms are coming under increased pressure to divest from fossil fuel industries, Fink’s oft-stated view that divestment is not an effective tool against climate change can be contentious. Not everyone is a fan of the BlackRock approach. “And transparency around your company’s planning for a net zero world is an important element of that.” “Stakeholder capitalism is all about delivering long-term, durable returns for shareholders,” he wrote. In his 2022 letter, Fink went further still: He wants companies to set more immediate emissions reduction targets, and to also report their progress in line with a framework created by the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures, or TCFD. He dialed up the urgency a notch in 2021 by asking CEOs to disclose how their companies’ net zero plans were “incorporated into your long-term plans and reviewed by your board of directors.” “Every government, country and shareholder must confront climate change,” wrote Fink, who is CEO and chairman of BlackRock. In Fink’s 2020 missive to CEOs, the language was relatively mild. In that context, Fink’s recent call for shorter-term corporate targets represents a subtle but significant escalation. because it believed the oil company wasn’t moving quickly enough to incorporate clean energy sources. And in May that year, the asset manager caused a stir when it voted to replace three directors at Exxon Mobil Corp. In March 2021, BlackRock also committed to the goal of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 or earlier. In January 2020, for example, the New York-based money manager signed up to Climate Action 100+, an investor-led initiative that’s pushing companies to move toward net zero emissions by 2050 or sooner. ![]() “These targets, and the quality of plans to meet them, are critical to the long-term economic interests of your shareholders.”īlackRock has long been a prominent player in the environmental, social and governance arena. ![]() “We are asking companies to set short-, medium-, and long-term targets for greenhouse gas reductions,” Fink wrote. 17, Fink asked companies to do more than set a long-term net zero target. In his annual letter to the CEOs of companies BlackRock invests in, published on Jan. and The Walt Disney Co., BlackRock’s macroeconomic views command attention in boardrooms across the world. As a major shareholder in companies ranging from Apple Inc. Larry Fink, influential financier and head of the investment firm BlackRock Inc., has just raised the corporate stakes on climate change - and chief executives across a wide swath of sectors are likely to pay heed.īlackRock is the world’s largest asset manager with a staggering $10 trillion in assets under management. Larry Fink’s call for near-term corporate emissions targets is a subtle but significant escalation of BlackRock using its influence to push for action on climate.
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