The Labor Department has released a clarification of existing rules and regulations which essentially tells BlackRock and all other fund managers that the new “Green Finance” policies being adopted by BlackRock and others are not legal. Risk, it appears, means financial risk, not the risk of a carbon-footprint.
As reported by Forbes, the clarification addresses so-called ESGs, “environmental, social, and governance” issues, being applied to investment decisions under “Green Finance.” The problem, according to the Labor Department, is that “private pension fund managers must be singularly focused on maximizing financial returns for their beneficiaries. The fiduciary fund managers cannot make investment decisions based on amorphous ESG factors that consist of loosely applied, non-accounting measures used by investors, analysts and activists to evaluate corporations.”
