A climate coalition has paused its work following BlackRock’s exit amid political pressure in the U.S.
New York: So, the Net Zero Asset Managers (NZAM) group, which was all about getting the asset management industry to meet climate goals, just hit the brakes. They announced on Monday that they’re suspending their activities. This comes right after BlackRock, the biggest investor out there, decided to leave the initiative.
BlackRock, which has a whopping $11.5 trillion in assets, pulled out on January 9. They mentioned some confusion about their climate efforts and legal inquiries from public officials as reasons for their exit. It seems like they were feeling the heat from some Republican politicians who were not too happy about their investments in fossil fuels.
With Trump getting ready to take office, the pressure was only expected to ramp up. Before BlackRock left, NZAM had over 325 signatories managing more than $57.5 trillion in assets. Quite a big deal, right?
In a letter to its members, the partner groups managing NZAM said they’re going to review their activities. They want to make sure they’re still relevant in this new political climate. They’re putting a pause on tracking how signatories are implementing their commitments and will even remove their commitment statement and list of signatories from their website for now.
It’s a bit of a mess, really. The NZAM initiative is trying to keep up with the changing landscape, especially with the increasing pressure from Republican officials. They’ve been pushing for asset managers to steer clear of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors in their investment choices.
There’s also been some legal action, like a lawsuit from Texas and other Republican-led states, claiming that fund activism has hurt coal production and driven up energy prices. Meanwhile, NZAM is still asking its members to support the global goal of capping warming and reaching net-zero emissions by 2050.
