Gustavo Bernal Torres
Accusations Of ESG Greenwashing Miss The Point
New perspectives on the ongoing controversy started after Tariq Fancy's (former Head of Sustainable Investing at BlackRock) USA Today op-ed-
The most surprising part of this ongoing controversy is that anyone is surprised. Wall Street greenwashes. That we knew. I’ve warned for years that ESG investing is mostly a charade, as have other cleantech investors. While I admire Mr. Fancy’s conviction, I fear that he is missing the point.
Even if the world’s biggest polluters wanted to go green – and even if the BlackRocks of the world supported them – they don’t have the technology to do it. ESG funds rarely invest in the step-change technologies that would enable polluters to eliminate fossil fuels from their value chain. Unfortunately, Mr. Fancy doesn’t think much of those opportunities. True, opportunities that don’t yield the same returns – potentially, it yields significantly greater returns.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/walvanlierop/2021/04/02/accusations-of-esg-greenwashing-miss-the-point/