Blackrock’s announcement on sustainable investments
(Sustainabilityenvironment.com) – It’s not yet an official target intended for sustainable investments, but it’s close enough.
Blackrock, the world’s largest investment company, has taken a look into the future, outlining what the “climate” composition of its portfolio will look like in 2030. By the end of the decade, at least 75% of its investments in companies and sovereign assets funds will have to be tied to plans to reach the carbon-neutral target by 2050. And these plans will need to be more than just announcements and based on scientific evidence.
The financial giant, to date, has among its assets a share classifiable as sustainable investments with these criteria of about 25%. As a result, the goal is to triple the number of companies and government funds setting serious and credible plans for the energy transition.
This is not an official goal, however Blackrock‘s corporate capacity is such that this announcement alone can accelerate the adoption of net-zero plans. The asset manager, in fact, controls a portfolio of nearly $10 trillion. The holdings that will be affected by the swing toward sustainable investments are 77% of the total.
“Because an orderly transition to net zero by 2050 would benefit the global economy and our clients in aggregate, we believe that by 2030, all issuers would benefit from developing and implementing robust transition plans”, Blackrock writes in a note.
“As the transition proceeds and issuers and asset owners continue to position themselves in front of it, we anticipate that by 2030, at least 75% of BlackRock corporate and sovereign assets managed on behalf of clients will be invested in issuers with science-based targets or equivalent“.
The announcement comes just a few months after CEO Larry Fink’s annual letter to investors announcing that the company would begin asking the companies and sovereign wealth funds in which it invests to set not only long-term goals, but also short- and medium-term goals.