When the European Commission announced in April that it had hired BlackRock to produce a report on integrating environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations into banking regulation in the European Union, it prompted an immediate and predictable storm of criticism.
Those for whom the US firm is the new global capitalist bogeyman were horrified at the idea of it being given access to the inner workings of European policymaking.
Civil society groups and members of the European parliament cited BlackRock’s ownership – through its investment funds – of large holdings in fossil fuel producers, as well as most of Europe’s biggest banks, as proof that the company could not be trusted to be objective on ESG issues.
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