BlackRock asset manager considers selling climate polluters
Asset manager BlackRock is threatening to sell its shares in the worst corporate polluters as it pledges to support the goal of net zero carbon dioxide emissions by 2050.
The firm commands around £6tn in assets and it has made a commitment to divest from fossil fuel investments.
Larry Fink, BlackRock’s chief executive, said the coronavirus pandemic had increased focus on the urgency of climate risks, in his annual letter to chief executives around the world.
“I believe that the pandemic has presented such an existential crisis – such a stark reminder of our fragility – that it has driven us to confront the global threat of climate change more forcefully and to consider how, like the pandemic, it will alter our lives,” he wrote.
“No issue ranks higher than climate change on our clients’ lists of priorities.”
Part of BlackRock’s pledge will mean attempts to vote against boards and in favour of climate resolutions and the “potential exit” from companies that don’t make an effort to meet climate goals.
According to the Guardian, the asset manager last year pledged to divest from companies who made more than 25% of their revenues from thermal coal.
Nevertheless it still owns assets worth $85bn in coal-producing companies.