As the “anti-woke” movement rattles billionaire Larry Fink, a Wall Street effort key to avoiding climate chaos falters.
“Every big problem needs a face and a name,” the speaker said at the private event hosted by the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council. “The worst offender out there is BlackRock and Larry Fink.”
Fink says nothing has changed. But the company’s portfolio these days does not reflect the ambitions he laid out when BlackRock launched its climate crusade in 2019. BlackRock is the world’s second biggest investor in fossil energy, according to the German NGO Urgewald, which also reports that no financial firm invests more in coal developers.
Fink, who declined several interview requests, initially seemed to relish his role in the ESG movement. The company is the most prominent member of a But Fink’s moves are what Wall Street and Washington are watching most closely, as he is, in the words of one executive, the financial industry’s “800 pound gorilla.”
The firm has spent millions of dollars on lobbying and campaign contributions to both major parties. By the time a 2013 Treasury Department report noted that BlackRock had grown so big that it could present a risk to the U.S. financial system absent more intense regulatory scrutiny, the firm had influential allies on Capitol Hill steering the Obama administration away from taking action.
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