As the climate crisis deepens, the world's biggest investors are making it worse by pouring more and more money into fossil fuels and refusing to hold polluters accountable -- and America's largest asset managers are doing the most damage of all.
Asset managers have two big sources of power: where they invest money and how they use their shareholder votes. They get to decide how much of their clients' money to invest in different companies' bonds and shares. As shareholders, they get to leverage their influence as partial owners over corporate decisions. By using these two in tandem, big investors can have huge influence in steering corporate decision making -- toward more polluting and risky activities, or more clean and sustainable solutions.
But right now, some of the biggest investors in the world - asset managers like BlackRock, Vanguard, State Street, and Fidelity - continue to throw fuel on the fire, pouring billions of dollars every year into companies that are building out new fossil fuel projects and locking us into a dangerous future. The latest Asset Manager Scorecard shows that out of 30 global asset managers, just two firms -- BlackRock and Vanguard -- were responsible for 58% of the recent investments in fossil fuel expansion.
For the sake of communities and the climate -- and investors' long-term savings -- asset managers must stop fueling the climate crisis. That means no more money for the companies expanding fossil fuels, and using their shareholder power to hold polluters -- and the banks that fund them -- accountable.
Take action: tell the CEOs of BlackRock, Vanguard State Street and Fidelity to put our future and our long-term savings over short-term fossil fuel profits.