Perhaps some sanity is returning
‘Sustainable’ Investors Flee References to Climate Change
For more than a decade, money manager Garvin Jabusch would show a chart of the planet’s rising temperatures when pitching investment ideas to clients, saying they could help save the planet and still make money. These days, he no longer uses the chart and avoids talking about climate change.
“I’ve given up on anyone ever caring about that,” said Jabusch, investment chief of Green Alpha Investments, which manages about $300 million.
He isn’t the only climate-focused investor downplaying references to global warming and related topics. Parnassus Investments, the biggest US sustainable-investing firm, has removed references on its website that its funds are “fossil-fuel free.”
And Engine No. 1, the small activist firm that led the shakeup of ExxonMobil Corp.’s board in 2021, has removed wording on its web page that corporate performance is “greatly enhanced” by investing in workers, communities and the environment. The fund now says it invests in companies that are “powering innovation and driving the reindustrialization of the United States.”
Shifting messages to match changing markets is nothing new. But after four years of declining prices for green investments, as well as Republican attacks on behalf of Big Oil for allegedly shunning fossil fuels, sustainable investors are shifting their past talking points in increasing numbers. The election of Donald Trump, an avowed enemy on topics that fall under ESG investing who has called global warming a hoax, may have sealed the deal.
It’s just a matter of investors realizing that most of this is mule fritters. They won’t abandon projects that are “green” and/or environmentally responsible, but, so much they’ve been seeing really shows low to no return on investment.
The panicked retreat by investment firms also follows a year when clients pulled a record $20.1 billion from sustainable-investment funds, according to researchers at Morningstar Inc.
People invest mostly to make money themselves. There comes a time when they stop.
Read: Investors Seem To Be Fleeing Climate Scam References »