We have expanded the list of climate policies we assess company engagement with to incorporate land-use related policy, referring to legislative or regulatory measures to enhance and protect ecosystems and land where carbon is being stored. Assessments under this category are currently underweighted in terms of their contribution to the overall company metrics. This weighting will be progressively increased over the next 6 months.
We adjusted the terminology used to describe the queries running down the left-hand side of our scoring matrix and added additional explanatory text to the info-boxes. This has no impact on the scores and methodology. It has been done following user feedback to improve clarity.
In this section, we depict graphically the relationships the corporation has with trade associations, federations, advocacy groups and other third parties who may be acting on their behalf to influence climate change policy. Each of the columns above represents one relationship the corporation appears to have with such a third party. In these columns, the top, dark section represents the strength of the relationship the corporation has with the influencer. For example if a corporation's senior executive also held a key role in the trade association, we would deem this to be a strong relationship and it would be on the far left of the chart above, with the weaker ones to the right. Click on these grey shaded upper sections for details of these relationships. The middle section contains a link to the organization score details of the influencer concerned, so you can see the details of its climate change policy influence. Click on the middle sections for for details of the trade associations. The lower section contains the organization score of that influencer, the lower the more negatively it is influencing climate policy.
Open PDF file of Data Source
Climate Lobbying Overview: BlackRock appears to have a positive top-line position on climate policy. The company has also communicated positively on several climate policies, including a carbon tax and subsidies for renewable energy, yet appears to support a role for fossil gas in the energy mix that is misaligned from IPCC recommendations.
Top-line Messaging on Climate Policy: BlackRock has communicated positive top-line positions on climate policy. In a client letter published on its website, accessed in April 2022, BlackRock stated its support for achieving net-zero GHG emissions by 2050 or sooner. The company also supported limiting global warming to 1.5°C on twitter in April 2021. In a March 2020 tweet, BlackRock stated that government policy is needed to solve the climate crisis, and in a client letter accessed in April 2022, BlackRock stated support for pricing carbon into the economy. In addition, in its Q1 2022 federal lobbying disclosure, BlackRock disclosed lobbying on the US Build Back Better Act, though without disclosing its positions on the climate provisions in the bill. In his ‘2020 Letter to CEOs,’ CEO Larry Fink backed global climate action aligned with the goals of the Paris Agreement.
Engagement with Climate-related Regulations: BlackRock appears to have limited engagement with specific climate policies. In an article titled ‘Launching climate-aware asset class return expectations’ published in February 2021 on its website, BlackRock appeared to support a carbon tax and government subsidies on renewable energy to aid the energy transition. Beyond this, InfluenceMap has not found evidence on the company’s engagement with other streams of climate policy.
Positioning on Energy Transition: BlackRock appears to have a mixed position regarding the energy transition, with some positions on continued investment in fossil fuels that are misaligned from IPCC recommendations. In the client letter ‘How to invest in the net-zero transition’ published on its website, accessed in April 2022, BlackRock called for government policy to limit hydrocarbon demand. In his ‘2022 Letter to CEOs,’ published on the corporate website, Larry Fink called for government policy on the energy transition. However, in the same letter, Fink also appeared to support a slower transition to green energy, stating that “we need to pass through shades of brown to shades of green,” and additionally, supported using fossil gas for power generation, heating, and production of hydrogen, without referencing the need to deploy CCS and methane abatement measures. Moreover, in a weekly commentary in the context of Russian oil sanctions published on its corporate website in April 2022, BlackRock suggested , fossil fuel output in the U.S. and elsewhere needs to rise to make up for the shortfall.
Industry Association Governance: As of April 2022, BlackRock has disclosed a list of its industry associations membership on its website, without further details on their climate policy position alignment and its engagement with the associations. The company has disclosed its climate policy alignment and engagement with a number of industry associations in its 2021 CDP submission, however, it failed to disclose its membership to Keidanren, which has been oppositional to various streams of climate policy.