Blackrock takes the path of sustainability and sends a clear message to the companies in which it invests: We will vote “against executives and directors when companies do not make sufficient progress on sustainability reporting and do not prepare related guidelines and business plans”.
Larry Fink, co-founder and president of the US financial giant writes it in the traditional annual letter sent to the CEOs of companies. “We are on the verge of a complete financial transformation. Data on climate risks are forcing investors to reconsider the very foundations of modern finance." For this reason "every government, company and shareholder must face climate change", writes Fink underlining that in "the near future sooner than anticipated by many, there will be a significant reallocation of capital”.
After joining the Climate Action 100+ campaign, the world's largest investment fund raises the alarm about the risks of climate change, announcing its intention to make sustainability is one of the main standards on which to base its investments. “More and more investors – continues the manager in his letter – realize that climate risk means investment risk. In fact, climate change is almost invariably the first concern customers around the world bring to our attention. From Europe to Australia, from South America to China, from Florida to Oregon, investors ask us how to modify their portfolios. They seek to understand not only the physical risks associated with climate change, but also what impact climate-related policies will have on prices, costs and demand for the economy as a whole”.
All questions which, according to Fink, already involve “a profound reassessment of the risk and value of assets. And because capital markets anticipate future risk, we will register changes in capital allocation faster than changes in the climate".
