
November 27, 2021 — BlackRock's Larry Fink: Don't divest fossil fuels, stay in the game
BlackRock's Larry Fink: Don't divest fossil fuels, stay in the game by Betsy Vereckey
Appeared in the MIT Sloan School of Management Ideas Made to Matter on November 2, 2021
Gina's Thoughts
BlackRock's CEO and Chairman Larry Fink comes out against divestment at the MIT Golub Center for Finance and Policy's eighth annual conference, "Financial Policy and the Environment." Fink believes that divestment of holdings in fossil fuels is a "bad answer", that "if a foundation or an insurance company or a pension fund says, 'I'm not going to own any hydrocarbons,' well, somebody else is, so you're not changing the world." Fink believes that pension funds, foundations, and endowments "should have a loud voice with companies to move forward." Finally, Fink posits that as more governments divest, "they're not changing the demand curve" for fossil fuels and that "nothing is more greenwashing than divestiture. Because it doesn't change the [carbon] footprint of the world." InvestNow agrees with everything here except the last statement. All barrels of oil are not created equal and if the 100 million barrels of oil per day demand is not met by Canadian companies - the best environmental performers - it will be met by companies in other places in the world where standards are much lower. The carbon footprint of the world is worsened by divestment. The result? Canada loses and so does the world.
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