BlackRock CEO Larry Fink puts climate change at center of megafund’s investment strategy

BlackRock Inc. will ditch investments with high sustainability-related risk as climate concerns drive a sweeping change in the way the world’s largest asset manager invests its $7 trillion in assets. “Climate change has become a defining factor in companies’ long-term prospects,” Chief Executive Officer Larry Fink wrote in his annual letter to corporate executives on Tuesday.

“Awareness is rapidly changing, and I believe we are on the edge of a fundamental reshaping of finance.” Fink is tackling the subject as asset managers come under greater pressure on sustainability and climate change. BlackRock has been moving toward a more public stance on climate, as activists and non-profit groups increasingly scrutinize the firm’s behavior and voting record around environmental issues.

Fink outlined a number of initiatives, including: making sustainability integral to portfolio construction and risk management; exiting investments that present a high sustainability-related risk, such as thermal coal producers; launching new investment products that screen fossil fuels; and strengthening the firm’s commitment to sustainability and transparency in its investment stewardship activities.

Earlier in January, BlackRock joined Climate Action 100+, a group of more than 370 investment managers with a combined $41 trillion in assets. Together the campaign’s members are pressuring the world’s biggest emitters of greenhouse gases to reduce their environmental impact and disclose more information on how climate change will affect their businesses.

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