The Net Zero Asset Managers (NZAM) initiative announced Monday it is suspending activities. The move comes after BlackRock, with $11.5 trillion in assets under management, joined an exodus of mega-firms leaving net-zero groups.
The initiative said on Friday it was “disappointed” in BlackRock’s decision, and in Monday’s announcement, NZAM said it would remove the list members and their net-zero commitment statements from the website.
A “new review”
“Recent developments in the U.S. and different regulatory and client expectations in investors’ respective jurisdictions have led to NZAM launching a review of the initiative to ensure NZAM remains fit for purpose in the new global context,” the initiative said in a statement.
Over the past month, six of the largest U.S. banks left a similar group for banks, the Net-Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA). Critics have referred to NZAM and the NZBA as “cartels,” and its sudden collapse follows a series of retreats from other environmental, social and governance (ESG) initiatives. In 2021 and 2022, federal, state, and local government officials introduced 563 measures, according to a UCLA study, limiting critical race theory (CRT) in schools. This year, more than two dozen companies — Amazon being the latest — revised or canceled their diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies.
Adding to the anti-ESG dogpile, U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor in Texas Friday ruled that American Airlines had violated federal law by utilizing ESG goals when investing for its employees retirement plans. […]
— Read More: justthenews.com
