Activists cheer BlackRock’s landmark climate move but call for vigilance

In recent decades, environmentalists have grown used to disappointment when big companies and Wall Street pay lip service to concern over the climate crisis. On Tuesday, it looked like something might have changed. The decision by BlackRock – the world’s biggest asset manager – to exit investments that “present a high sustainability-related risk” has been welcomed by environmentalists as a significant moment in the battle to reshape the relationship between money and the climate crisis. The move is “a remarkable breakthrough”, the leading climate science writer Bill McKibben told the Guardian. “The activists who made this happen get the afternoon off to celebrate. “This is the biggest pot of money in the world and until today, its leaders have refused to acknowledge the biggest thing happening on the planet – the accelerating rise in temperature. So it indicates that the facts on the ground of the climate crisis are so grave that no one can turn away, and that activist pressure has reached a point that even the richest companies are not immune.” In two letters on Monday, the BlackRock boss, Larry Fink, announced: “The evidence on climate risk is compelling investors to reassess core assumptions about modern finance” […]

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