Accusations Of ESG Greenwashing Miss The Point

Accusations Of ESG Greenwashing Miss The Point

Share to Linkedin On March 16, an insider supposedly blew the lid on Wall Street greenwashing. Tariq Fancy formerly led Sustainable Investing at BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, whose CEO Larry Fink demanded in 2021 that all companies explain how they'll reach net-zero emissions by 2050. "No issue ranks higher than climate change on our clients' lists of priorities," said Fink in his annual letter to CEOs. Mr. Fancy says don't buy it. "In truth, sustainable investing boils down to little more than marketing hype, PR spin and disingenuous promises from the investment community," he wrote in USA Today. ESG investing is mostly a charade. The most surprising part of this ongoing controversy is that anyone is surprised. Wall Street greenwashes. That we knew. I've warned for years that ESG investing is mostly a charade, as have other cleantech investors. While I admire Mr. Fancy's conviction, I fear that he is missing the point. Even if the world's biggest polluters wanted to go green - and even if the BlackRocks of the world supported them - they don't have the technology to do it. ESG funds rarely invest in the step-change technologies that would enable polluters to eliminate fossil