Climate activists criticize BlackRock CEO’s support for slow transition off oil and natural gas

Climate activists criticize BlackRock CEO’s support for slow transition off oil and natural gas

CEO Larry Fink's called the need to decarbonize the global economy the largest investment opportunity of this generation, but he didn't go far enough in his willingness to castrate the oil and gas industries, climate activists say. Fink said traditional fossil fuel companies cannot be cut out of the energy transition because oil and gas will be necessary to bridge global infrastructure from where it is now to the decarbonized future where it needs to go. "The transition to net zero is already uneven with different parts of the global economy moving at different speeds. It will not happen overnight. We need to pass through shades of brown to shades of green," Fink wrote. "To ensure continuity of affordable energy supplies during the transition, traditional fossil fuels like natural gas will play an important role both for power generation and heating in certain regions, as well as for the production of hydrogen." Also, BlackRock, which on Friday revealed it had surpassed $10 trillion in assets under management, does not have a policy of divesting from fossil fuels. Some of BlackRock's clients do divest completely from oil and gas investments, while others do not, Fink said. Fink said the world currently