More developments in the controversy surrounding asset managers and the environmental, social, and governance strategy, or ESG. Arizona is divesting $543 million from the world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock over this, and the world’s largest issuer of mutual funds, Vanguard, is pulling out of a group seeking to hit net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, called the Net Zero Asset Managers initiative.
NTD spoke to Will Hild, the executive director of Consumers’ Research, who says BlackRock is using funds not listed for ESG to achieve ESG-related targets.
BlackRock did not immediately respond to a request for comment on this, but Blackrock CEO Larry Fink is a proponent of what’s called stakeholder capitalism, and he has pushed back against accusations that the company was using its size to promote a political agenda.