In an apparent response to the most robust antitrust enforcement climate in decades, three leading financial institutions — BlackRock, JPMorgan Asset Management, and State Street Global Advisors — have announced their exit from the Climate Action 100+ initiative. The news of the withdrawals arrives at a critical juncture in the initiative’s strategy, which has now shifted from a focus on advocating for companies to declare net zero plans to actively urging them to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Each of these institutions had been integral members of the Climate Action 100+ initiative, a group that originally drew together over 700 global investors with a unified goal to lessen the carbon imprint of the world’s biggest corporate greenhouse gas emitters. However, their departure from the initiative implies serious repercussions to the global decarbonization endeavor.