{"id":1673691,"date":"2022-10-05T10:23:10","date_gmt":"2022-10-05T14:23:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1673691"},"modified":"2022-10-05T10:23:15","modified_gmt":"2022-10-05T14:23:15","slug":"anti-esg-movement-gains-momentum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/anti-esg-movement-gains-momentum\/","title":{"rendered":"Anti-ESG Movement Gains Momentum"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">8<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fanti-esg-movement-gains-momentum%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1673691&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p><em>News Analysis<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Only a few years after declaring that \u201cclimate risk is investment risk\u201d and mandating corporations to meet certain environmental standards, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-larry-fink\">Larry Fink<\/a>, chairman and CEO of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-blackrock\">BlackRock<\/a>, is facing growing resistance. Even the most ardent champions of sustainable investing are experiencing a rude awakening.<\/p>\n<p>Fink, who leads the world\u2019s largest asset management firm, announced in his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.blackrock.com\/corporate\/investor-relations\/2020-blackrock-client-letter\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">2020 letter to clients<\/a> that he would place sustainability at the center of his investment strategy and reduce investment in fossil fuels.<\/p>\n<p>Last month, Fink spoke about his company\u2019s role in the green-energy transition at a Clinton Global Initiative event, which garnered him praises from former President Bill Clinton.<\/p>\n<p>Fink <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WillHild\/status\/1572299669669036034?s=20&amp;t=t0bGuECUmTC9M3IYZtD23Q\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">stated<\/a>: \u201cThe tectonic shift is happening. \u2026 We\u2019re seeing evidence every day that climate risk is investment risk. And people are waking up to that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But not everyone in the investment community agrees. For example, Ohio-based Strive Asset Management has started a crusade against the world\u2019s leading asset managers that push for sustainable investing, often known as environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing.<\/p>\n<p>The firm, co-founded by Vivek Ramaswamy and Anson Frericks this year, has become the most prominent advocate of the anti-ESG movement.<\/p>\n<p>In August, Strive launched its first index fund, the U.S. Energy ETF (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/quotes\/DRLL\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">DRLL<\/a>), which invests in the U.S. energy sector. In the first couple of weeks of trading, the fund has attracted more than $300 million, which the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/a8ce3918-59c3-4bca-8832-2a475a2c1124\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Financial Times<\/a> describes as \u201can eye-catching success.\u201d So far, other \u201canti-woke\u201d ETFs have struggled to surpass $25 million in assets, the newspaper said.<\/p>\n<p>The early success of Strive\u2019s energy ETF marks a new era in the anti-ESG movement.<\/p>\n<p>On Sept. 20, Strive announced the creation of its second index fund, the Strive 500 ETF (STRV), which invests in large U.S. corporations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve been very excited about the amount of enthusiasm,\u201d said Frericks, adding that the startup will continue to launch more funds over the next couple of months.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re bringing a lot of the shortcomings of the ESG movement to the public\u2019s view,\u201d he told The Epoch Times.<\/p>\n<p>According to its founders, Strive intends to leverage the power of shareholder votes to mandate corporations to prioritize profits over political agendas. They have been criticizing the three largest asset managers\u2014BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street\u2014for breaking their fiduciary duties by putting too much emphasis on climate change and \u201cstakeholder capitalism\u201d instead of higher returns.<\/p>\n<p>The Big Three funds manage collectively about $20 trillion worth of assets and exert \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.researchgate.net\/publication\/315432577_Hidden_Power_of_the_Big_Three_Passive_Index_Funds_Re-Concentration_of_Corporate_Ownership_and_New_Financial_Risk#:~:text=This%20burgeoning%20passive%20index%20fund,Three%20in%20the%20United%20States.\">hidden power<\/a>\u201d on corporate boards because of their voting rights. For example, they owned more than <a href=\"https:\/\/finance.yahoo.com\/quote\/XOM\/holders\/\">21 percent<\/a> of Exxon Mobil Corp. as of June.<\/p>\n<h2>A Broad Stand Against ESG Investing<\/h2>\n<p>The anti-ESG investment community asserts that U.S. energy corporations have underinvested in oil and gas production, in part because of ESG rules imposed by these asset managers. And the insufficient investment, they claim, has caused a global shortage of energy and inflation this year.<\/p>\n<p>Not only investors, but also U.S. lawmakers, governors, state treasurers, and legislators, have taken a stand on ESG investing as a result.<\/p>\n<p>Tariq Fancy, BlackRock\u2019s first global chief investment officer for sustainable investing from 2018 to 2019, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2021\/08\/24\/blackrocks-former-sustainable-investing-chief-says-esg-is-a-dangerous-placebo.html\">warned<\/a> about the ESG movement and called it a \u201cdangerous placebo that harms the public interest.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase CEO and a prominent\u00a0advocate\u00a0of\u00a0ESG, recently <a href=\"https:\/\/financialservices.house.gov\/live\/\">acknowledged<\/a>\u00a0the necessity to invest in the fossil fuel\u00a0industry. When asked by Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) whether his bank would stop financing new oil and gas projects during a congressional hearing on Sept. 21, Dimon responded, \u201cAbsolutely not, and that would be the road to hell for America.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe aren\u2019t getting this one right. The world needs 100 million barrels effectively of oil and gas every day. And we need it for 10 years,\u201d\u00a0he said during the hearing, adding that the current energy crisis has caused emissions to rise because of the increased usage of coal.<\/p>\n<p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/hbr.org\/2022\/03\/an-inconvenient-truth-about-esg-investing\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">March report<\/a> by the Harvard Business Review revealed \u201can inconvenient truth\u201d about ESG funds. Not only did ESG portfolios have poor financial returns but they also had a \u201cworse compliance record for both labor and environmental rules,\u201d the report stated.<\/p>\n<p>Nonetheless, capital flows to sustainable investing have broken record after record. ESG assets globally are estimated to reach <a href=\"https:\/\/www2.deloitte.com\/us\/en\/insights\/industry\/financial-services\/esg-investing-and-sustainability.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">$55 trillion<\/a>\u00a0in 2022, and are on track to account for half of all professionally managed assets globally by 2024, according to consultancy firm Deloitte.<\/p>\n<div class=\"author_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"one_author_block round\">\n<div class=\"top_row\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/author-emel-akan\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Follow<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Emel Akan writes about business and economics. Previously she worked in the financial sector as an investment banker at JPMorgan. She graduated with a master\u2019s degree in business administration from Georgetown University.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>News AnalysisOnly a few years after declaring that \u201cclimate risk is investment risk\u201d and mandating corporations to meet certain environmental standards, Larry Fink, chairman and CEO of BlackRock, is facing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1673691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1673691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1673691"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1673691\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1673691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1673691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1673691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}