BlackRock’s New Morality Marks the End for Coal
The finance giant is far from the first company to lean into responsible investing, but it’s sending a clear message on the future of energy.
Larry Fink has a message for you.
Photographer: Ludovic Marin/AFP via Getty Images
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This week, BlackRock Inc. Chief Executive Officer Larry Fink published two letters — one to CEOs, one to BlackRock clients — outlining the asset manager’s environmental, social and governance priorities for 2020 and beyond. To say the letters’ import is significant doesn’t nearly do it justice. On Wednesday, I attended a conference of energy CEOs, executive board members, institutional investors and proxy advisors, and Fink’s letters were mentioned multiple times in every session. A wave of disclosure of climate change risks is coming in force, and with it, a wave of physical and financial asset allocation decisions. One sector, already on notice, will feel that wave breaking first: coal.