The Heartland Institute has published a study of ESG—the environmental, social, and governance movement increasingly adopted by companies and investors. Jack McPherrin calls it “one of the gravest threats facing the free societies of the world today.” “At its core, ESG is a social credit scoring system that ideologically aligned elites and subservient bureaucratic authorities…
Tag: ESG
A Weak Defense of ESG in Investing
Two writers on the Harvard Business Review blog claim that ESG (that is, adding environmental, social, and governance criteria to investment decisions) is not bad when you stick to the straight and narrow: identifying material risks from non-financial criteria. “To us, ESG is simply about identifying material risk factors that matter to company profitability and…
Friday Links
- “Climate alarmism is tyranny with green wrapping, delivered with terror.”
- Colorado River Indian tribes can now lease their water to drought-stricken users.
- Senators challenge Department of Labor’s decision to let pensions use ESG (environmental, social, and governance) criteria in investing.
- “The nail in the coffin?” The Biden administration blocks a potential gold and copper mine in Alaska.
- Fish and Wildlife Service knew predictions for Antarctica ice were flawed but used them to list the emperor penguin as a threatened species, says Susan Crockford.
Despite a Warning from the Supreme Court, SEC Proceeds with Its Over-Arching Climate Rule
Rupert Darwall, writing in The Hill, warns that the SEC’s rule on climate change disclosures, still in the proposal stage, is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. The rule would require companies to disclose any material impacts of climate change or climate-change regulation on their business. In addition, it would require companies to disclose all their…
The SEC Drops Its Climate Change Bomb
On March 21, the Securities and Exchange Commission (by a 3-1 vote) told public companies they must disclose the risks that climate change may have on their financial future. In its press release, the SEC said the requirement “would include disclosure of a registrant’s greenhouse gas emissions, which have become a commonly used metric to…
A Growing Backlash Against ‘ESG’ Investing?
Demands that companies meet “environmental, social, and governance” (ESG) standards are weakening, say Andy Puzder and Stephen R. Soukup in an essay for RealClearEnergy. They point out that Larry Fink, head of the investment firm BlackRock (the largest manager of assets in the world) has softened his tone. In the past (as in his 2020…