© Reuters. Participants of the World Economic Forum (WEF) 2023 are seen in a room at the Davos Congress Center, in the alpine resort of Davos, Switzerland, January 16, 2023. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann
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By Lananh Nguyen and Simon Jessop
DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) – BlackRock (NYSE:), the world’s largest asset manager, lost around $4 billion in assets under management as a result of a political backlash against environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing. ) in the United States, his chief executive said.
Republican-controlled Florida, Louisiana and Missouri have said they plan to withdraw the company’s investment mandates, citing concerns including that BlackRock’s ESG efforts could hurt investor returns.
However, Larry Fink, speaking at a Bloomberg News event in Davos, Switzerland, on Tuesday, said the asset management group received $230 billion over the course of 2022 from US clients.
Despite making much more money than he lost, Fink said he was taking the issue “very seriously” and was trying to “address misconceptions.”
“It’s hard, because it’s not a business… they’re doing it personally. For the first time in my professional career, the attacks are now personal. They’re trying to demonize the issues.”
Some of the company’s critics have pointed to its efforts to encourage companies to transition to a low-carbon economy in the fight against climate change as an attack on the fossil fuel industry.
However, Fink said that BlackRock was one of the biggest investors in the sector in the world. He also pointed to the global shift towards reducing climate-damaging carbon emissions, particularly in Europe, as a key driver of new business.
“If you do not have a lens towards decarbonization, you are not going to earn a single euro of business.”
The US government’s moves to fund faster turnaround in the world’s largest economy, through the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), was also a “game changer,” he said.
“Let’s be clear, the narrative is ugly; the narrative is creating this great polarization.”
