UN-Backed Net Zero Asset Managers Group Is Pretty Much Dead

Trump is magic. 

I am convinced of it. 

In yet another victory for sanity, the UN-backed Net Zero Asset Managers trade group is shuttering its doors after BlackRock exited the group days ago. 

Trump effect slams ESG again: Fretting DoJ antitrust investigation, illegal ESG trade group Net Zero Asset Managers suspends activities after @BlackRock quits.https://t.co/wpmT575UAJ pic.twitter.com/INd4jvdD4v

— Steve Milloy (@JunkScience) January 13, 2025

This is, needless to say, HUGE. Asset managers are the people who control the vast majority of capital in our society, and as long as asset managers were engaged in this crusade to destroy our industrial base the economy would be held hostage to their demands. 

That is, of course, exactly what the globalists at the United Nations, the EU, and all the crazy “degrowth” people wanted, although how that fit with managing the wealth of the world with fiduciary responsibility was never quite clear. In fact, that was likely one of the issues that killed off the group. 

A great example of precisely this kind of thinking was the Dutch decision to sell its stake in Tesla last year for largely political reasons:

🇳🇱DUTCH PENSION GIANT’S €500M TESLA BLUNDER

ABP sold its 2.8M Tesla shares in September, valuing its stake at €782M – today, those shares would be worth nearly €1.3B.

The decision, driven by Elon’s pay package and concerns over working conditions, cost the fund a staggering… pic.twitter.com/Pw66Z0hmnj

— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) January 13, 2025

If your job is to maximize returns, you have to invest based on maximizing returns. Right?

While the fight is far from over (@BlackRock is still pushing Net Zero targets and racism in hiring/promotion as an individual firm) this is a HUGE win for consumers.

The rapid collapse of NZAM is *undoubtedly* a direct result of the multi-state antitrust suit, against NZAM…

— Will Hild (@WillHild) January 13, 2025

The Financial Times exclusively reported about the implosion of the trade group:

LONDON/BOSTON, Jan 13 (Reuters) – A flagship coalition aimed at aligning the asset management industry with global climate goals said it was suspending its activities on Monday, days after BlackRock (BLK.N), opens new tab, the world’s biggest investor, left amid a political backlash in the United States.

BlackRock, which manages some $11.5 trillion in assets, left the Net-Zero Asset Managers (NZAM) initiative on Jan. 9 citing confusion over its climate efforts and legal inquiries from public officials.

The step followed months of escalating pressure from some Republican politicians over its stance on investing in fossil fuel companies, with concern that such pressure could rise further as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take office.

The group counted more than 325 signatories managing more than $57.5 trillion in assets as members, according to its website as of last week, before the departure of BlackRock.

Did you catch that number? $57.5 TRILLION under management by these guys. And POOF!, it’s gone. My guess is that for many of them this is a relief because all this environmental activism is a distraction imposed on them by people who don’t understand how markets work. 

Surely some of these asset managers liked the rules because they sounded good at cocktail parties, but focusing on Net Zero probably hurt the bottom line, and if Blackrock is out they have to compete. 

Larry Fink sounded all-in in 2023 when talking about ESG, but he is probably just a mercenary who goes where the ideological wind is blowing. If Davos wanted it and everybody else was doing it, he was fine with it. But with a Trump administration coming in and the group looking shaky, he wanted to get in front of the issue. 

BlackRock CEO: “At BlackRock we are forcing behaviors… you have to force behaviors.” pic.twitter.com/2Q2H84GPC7

— Te𝕏asLindsay™ (@TexasLindsay_) June 4, 2023

The NZAM group alluded to Trump in announcing its suspension, and unsurprisingly so. No doubt the collapse of European governments due to their commitment to NetZero also had an effect. 

In a letter to its members seen by Reuters, the partner groups which help manage the NZAM said they had decided to conduct a review of its activities.

“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.

“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.”

Klaus Schwab must be crying in his beer right now. Greta Thunberg, though, is nattering on about killing the Joos, so she will likely remain silent. 

Changes by the NZAM initiative could prevent the sort of flight by asset managers that diminished the influence of another investor climate group, the Climate Action 100+, last year.

At the time, big fund firms cited independence concerns, not politics, as a reason for their dropping out. Since then pressure from U.S. Republican officials has increased on executives to back away from reflecting environmental, social and governance (ESG) assessments in their investment decisions.

So much winning.