“Talk about the work that is happening,” Whitney Dailey, executive vice president at Allison+Partners, which advises on ESG communications, said during a panel I spoke on earlier this week.
BlackRock, to point to an obvious example, has lost billions in business from the states of Texas and Florida after being targeted by conservative politicians in those states.įor that reason, companies increasingly seem inclined to follow a version of Fink’s approach: pursue climate efforts and explain them in clear language as a business objective. But the reality is that stakeholders-governments, investors, consumers, and employees-are increasingly putting that pressure on companies.ĭespite all this, the ESG backlash does matter, and businesses are terrified about the consequences of speaking out. And, surely, many companies will avoid thinking about decarbonization until they are forced to do so. The backtracking from climate commitments in the oil-and-gas industry as fossil fuel prices have risen is a prime example. What’s unknown is what fits and starts will occur along the way.
