On Friday, Les Echos (1) and three other major European outlets published a long interview with Larry Fink, CEO of the world’s largest asset manager. He describes his vision of Europe’s future and analyzes its problems, notably inflation and the energy crisis. In addition to propagating a misguided discourse, Fink struggles to hide his appetite for short-term profits, no matter the cost. Reclaim Finance calls on BlackRock’s European clients, which include large pension funds and institutional investors, to react strongly.
Contrary to Fink’s statement in the interview, new liquefied natural gas (LNG) import capacity and more coal will not solve the European energy crisis. As the International Energy Agency (IEA) has unequivocally pointed out, Europe’s energy crisis – and the inflation that has largely resulted from it – has been caused first and foremost by dependence on fossil fuels (2), and natural gas in particular. Increasing Europe’s fossil fuel dependence is therefore certainly not a sustainable solution to this crisis. The solution lies rather in what Larry Fink does not mention, namely reducing energy consumption and increasing renewable energy production (3).
Diversification of gas supplies to compensate for Russian gas imports is, to a certain extent, necessary to meet the energy needs of Europeans in the short term. But it only offers a short-term contribution and should not lead to investments that place fossil fuels at the center of the European energy mix in the medium and long term:
- Prioritizing energy savings and developing renewable energies, in line with the European Union’s climate objectives, would have made it possible to reduce fossil fuel use long before the start of the war in Ukraine. France – has thus notoriously failed to reach its own renewable energy deployment targets (4). While this prior action would have averted the crisis, there is still room for swift action to reduce energy use and increase renewable electricity production (5). As Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, says, “Renewable energies […] make us independent of Russian fossil fuels. They are more cost-effective. And they are cleaner than anything else. So let’s seize the opportunity and invest in renewables.”
- More gas does not go hand in hand with lower prices. Gas is traded on the global market, so its price depends on global demand. Gas prices had risen before the Russian aggression and the current high demand maintains high prices, especially compared to renewables’ competitiveness. Moreover, the new European gas infrastructures commit member states for years – even decades – and contribute to the increase of global demand and thus to ever higher prices (6).
- Moreover, increasing our dependence on fossil gas will make us just as vulnerable as ever, since Europe imports the vast majority of its gas. Among its major suppliers, several countries – such as the United Arab Emirates or Qatar – do not respect human rights. The Russian scenario could well be repeated in the future with other suppliers.
- Beyond that, and unlike renewable energies, an energy system that relies essentially on fossil fuels is always vulnerable to any disruption – even temporary – in supply. The IEA thus notes that the transition to clean energy and carbon neutrality will help limit the increase in energy bills and – above all – protect consumers from energy shocks (7).
Larry Fink’s comments echo his strong support for fossil fuels, including for the coal sector. Unlike a growing number of European asset managers, BlackRock still invests unrestrictedly in companies that still develop new coal mines and coal plants. Furthermore, as part of its Net Zero Asset Manager Initiative membership, BlackRock adopted laughably weak portfolio decarbonization targets and has taken no steps to address its passive investment problem.
While Larry Fink applauds the EU sustainable taxonomy and is supportive of a coal revival (8), many European investors disagree and have taken a stand against including gas in the taxonomy (9). We hope that BlackRock’s European clients will push back against these statements, which, if acted upon, would offer devastating prospects for the European and global transition. We call on clients to publicly state their disagreement with the dangerous turn BlackRock is taking. They must also commit to review their investment mandates if immediate action, at least on coal, is not taken by BlackRock.