Green Investing Is a Sham

Bel article critique envers l’investissement d’impact ou le mouvement ISR offert par Nicole Aschoff dans Jacobin (« Green Investing Is a Sham »).

Extrait :

So is tackling climate change simply about getting the incentives right? Is a more robust, standardized market in ESG metrics the key to reaching global emissions targets? Unfortunately not, for at least two reasons.

The first reason is that, just as companies are not compelled to honor shareholder resolutions, large investors and fund managers are not our allies. According to FundVotes, a project that tracks proxy voting, BlackRock, Invesco, BNY Mellon, and Vanguard have all voted against shareholder resolutions raised at ExxonMobil’s and Chevron’s annual meetings aimed at increasing corporate disclosures on climate change. The Guardian’s recent investigation confirms this finding: “BlackRock and Vanguard opposed or abstained on more than 80 percent of climate-related motions at FTSE 100 and S&P 500 fossil fuel companies between 2015 and 2019.”

The explanation for money managers’ unwillingness to use their clout to spur the transition from fossil fuels is simple: they have huge investments in dirty energy companies. BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street, the three biggest fund managers, boast “a combined $300 billion fossil fuel investment portfolio” — a portfolio that has grown nearly 35 percent since 2016.

A second reason why we can’t rely on market mechanisms to solve climate change is that, right now, a “green” label on funds and bonds has no legal basis — and companies and their political allies are working hard to keep it that way. If green funds and bonds invest in companies and projects that are not actually green, there are no legal repercussions, only reputational repercussions. In just one example of how investors are routinely misled, a $500 million Vanguard exchange-traded green fund was recently found to have investments in oil and gas companies despite promises to the contrary. And, because there are so many ESG metrics, just about any company can market itself as green — hence “green” fracking companies.

Even insiders recognize the limits of green capitalism. As Hans Hoogervorst, the chairman of the International Accounting Standards Board, put it recently: “We should not expect sustainability reporting to be very effective in inducing companies to prioritize planet over profit . . . Greenwashing is rampant.”

Self-reports, ratings systems, and the supposed green intentions of the world’s largest money managers won’t curb the voracious appetites of the world’s biggest corporations. ESG metrics and impact investing are mostly hype — an opportunity for “woke” capitalists to cash in on our desire to preserve the planet for future generations. Corporations are trying to hijack the climate justice movement. Only a bold, large-scale, people-centered movement can stop them.

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Ce contenu a été mis à jour le 11 novembre 2019 à 14 h 38 min.

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