Corporations Are Losing the ESG Battle, Forcing Them to Hide Advocacy

Wall Street titans appear to be having an increasingly hard time reconciling the conflicting goals of progressive activism and shareholder returns. Until recently, many banks, asset managers, and insurers portrayed these goals as complementary, asserting that climate risk is financial risk and that the competence of management can be assessed by its commitment to social justice goals. Today, however, those narratives are rarely heard. BlackRock, JPMorgan Chase, and State Street recently exited from Climate Action 100+, a coalition of the world’s largest fund managers that pledges to “ensure the world’s largest corporate greenhouse gas emitters take necessary action on climate change.”...