BlackRock, the world’s biggest money manager announced that it is leaving the Net Zero Asset Manager (NZAM) alliance. NZAM is the largest of the finance sector net-zero alliances in terms of the number of members and the size of the assets they hold. It is also one of the least ambitious. It allows its members to keep investing until 2050 in fossil fuel and other companies that are unaligned with net zero.
BlackRock’s exit from NZAM came just ten days before Trump’s inauguration and on the heels of the six big Wall Street banks pulling out of the net-zero bank alliance. It also came in the midst of the catastrophic Los Angeles fires which are likely to be one of the most costly climate disasters in US history, and on the day when scientists announced that 2024 was the first year to exceed pre-industrial temperatures by more than 1.5°C.
In 2021 BlackRock’s CEO Larry Fink’s letter to shareholders famously acknowledged the financial risks of climate change and claimed that, “We are on the edge of a fundamental reshaping of finance.” Fink called on all companies “to disclose a plan for how their business model will be compatible with a net-zero economy.”
BlackRock quitting NZAM is mostly symbolic given that the alliance requires so little of its members. But the symbolism of Wall Street’s largest investor telling corporate boards and management that they had to address climate change was important, and the symbolism is also important of them now saying lets just forget all that stuff and bend the knee to the climate denialists about to move into the White House.
Patrick McCully, senior analyst, Reclaim Finance
Climate committed asset owners that use BlackRock to manage their funds, and in particular the members of the UN-convened net zero asset owner alliance, must make their displeasure known over the huge money manager’s flip flopping on climate, and start the process of moving their funds to asset managers who take the climate crisis seriously.
Lara Cuvelier, Sustainable Investments Campaigner, Reclaim Finance
