UN-sponsored climate cartel goes bust
A climate cartel sponsored by the United Nations has suspended its activities after being abandoned by BlackRock.
Net Zero Asset Managers (NZAM) was a coalition of some of the world’s largest investors who adopted the UN’s goal of net zero emissions by 2050. To achieve this, its members forced companies to agree to climate policies and mandates by withholding investments. NZAM’s members included BlackRock, which manages $10 trillion of the world’s wealth and whose CEO Larry Fink once pledged to enforce climate mandates by “forcing behaviors.”
In recent months, however, NZAM has been bleeding members. Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs Group, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America, and Wells Fargo & Co. were the latest companies to leave NZAM. NZAM stopped operating after BlackRock’s exit on Thursday, citing “recent developments in the U.S.” which may refer to Donald Trump’s election victory.
“Recent developments in the U.S. and different regulatory and client expectations in investors’ respective jurisdictions have led to NZAM launching a review of the initiative to ensure NZAM remains fit for purpose in the new global context,” the cartel said in a press release. “Signatories will be consulted throughout the review process and informed of any updates in a timely and transparent fashion.
“As the initiative undergoes this review, it is suspending activities to track signatory implementation and reporting. NZAM will also remove the commitment statement and list of NZAM signatories from its website, as well as their targets and related case studies, pending the outcome of the review.”
Speaking about BlackRock’s exit from NZAM last week, the investment giant’s Vice-Chair Philipp Hildebrand said membership in the cartel “caused confusion regarding BlackRock’s practices and subjected us to legal inquiries from various public officials.”
Crackdown from Republican lawmakers
Republican lawmakers have been cracking down on climate cartels. In November, 11 Republican attorneys general sued BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street for driving down the coal industry and boosting energy prices by enforcing climate policies. The three megacorporations collectively manage about $26 trillion of the world’s wealth and own 21.9% of companies on the S&P 500 with nearly 25% voting power.
In 2023, 19 Republican states led by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis formed an alliance to reject climate ideology.
A ‘holy war’
A June report from the House Judiciary Committee revealed that climate cartels view themselves as soldiers in a “holy war” for the climate. The committee reviewed over 270,000 documents from cartel organizations and more than 2.5 million pages of related information in which environmental groups claim to be in a “Global World War” and refer to themselves in militant terms. These organizations include Climate 100+, which counts BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street among its members.
“[The cartel] has described Climate Action 100+ as ‘the global Navy,’ and compared Ceres’s efforts to ‘the Army ground troops’ and 'an ‘air cover’ strategic and silent bombing campaign by a newly funded division of the Air Force,’” the House Judiciary Committee report said.
Together, these entities strong-arm American corporations into making commitments to “decarbonize” and achieve certain net-zero goals by 2050. Companies that refuse are considered to be on “the wrong side of climate history” and are punished. Such punishments include voting against managers who do not comply, filing shareholder resolutions to force ESG, replacing board members, and withholding investments.
