Peabody Energy Corporation (BTU)

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BlackRock’s list of climate commitments just got longer

Michael J. Coren
December 27, 2020

The world’s largest asset manager kicked off 2020 by laying out a list of climate pledges that put the rest of the financial sector on notice. “Climate risk is investment risk,” wrote BlackRock’s CEO Larry Fink in his annual open letter to chief executives in January. Climate change is rewriting the most basic assumptions of modern finance, he argued, and portfolios that integrate climate risk will deliver better long-term returns than conventional investments.

Over the last year, though, critics were less than impressed with how BlackRock delivered on its rhetoric. So for 2021, the manager of $7.8 trillion in assets has added at least a dozen more items to its climate to-do list—and they seek to give teeth to the principles laid out this January, perhaps increasing the pace of companies’ climate plans.

At the beginning of the year, Fink laid out a laundry list of steps putting “sustainability at the center of our investment approach” in 2020, from divesting from thermal coal companies to demanding that companies in its portfolio disclose climate and sustainability risks.

The letter sent banks and companies scrambling. “BlackRock is the biggest player on the block,” says Mindy Lubber, CEO of Ceres, a non-profit pressuring investors and companies to act on climate. “When they move, a lot of people follow.” BlackRock has a sizeable stake in more than 90% of S&P 500 companies, along with powerful voting rights capable of challenging management’s decisions on climate if they don’t meet its standards.

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https://finance.yahoo.com/news/blackrock-list-climate-commitments-just-170043919.html