Deese and BlackRock Can Help Fight Climate Change
Biden’s pick to lead the National Economic Council brought sustainability concepts to Wall Street and can bring private-sector ideas to Washington.
The revolving door could work.
Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
President-elect Joe Biden’s selection of Brian Deese to lead the National Economic Council is likely to renew long-standing arguments about whether the private sector can be trusted to help combat climate change and how much business should influence public policy. The answer is there’s plenty of work to go around for both sides when it comes to climate change.
Deese will rejoin the White House from his perch at Wall Street titan BlackRock Inc., the world’s largest money manager. BlackRock plucked Deese from the Obama administration, where he served as senior climate and energy adviser, to lead the firm’s sustainable investing. While there, he helped develop a new tool, unveiled this week, that allows BlackRock’s clients to better assess the climate risks lurking in their portfolios.