, Columnist
BlackRock Muddies the Social-Investing Waters
The giant money manager is taking a misguided approach to climate change.
Mixing up values and risk assessment does not make for solid investing.
Photographer: Bess Adler/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
If you need some clarity around social investing, don’t look to the world’s biggest money manager for help.
Larry Fink, chief executive officer of BlackRock Inc., threw social investing into the spotlight on Tuesday in his annual letter to America’s CEOs. Climate change is an urgent problem, he said, and BlackRock will make it the center of its investment approach by “making sustainability integral to portfolio construction” and exiting investments that contribute to climate change, such as coal producers.