The Guardian

BlackRock gets praise for coal divestment. What it really needs is regulation | Ann Pettifor

For the world’s biggest fund manager and its fellow shadow banks, self-policing can never be sufficient
A demonstration in Paris against the French government’s pensions overhaul: ‘BlackRock holds and manages about 30% of the savings of Europeans.’ Photograph: Lionel Bonaventure/AFP via Getty Images

Let’s not beat about the bushfires. It’s not the impacts of climate breakdown on our ecosystems or the world’s poorest in the global south that worries Larry Fink, the CEO of that financial behemoth BlackRock. No, what really worries him and his shadow banking peers is the “fundamental reshaping of finance” threatened by climate protesters, and what this means for his company’s interests.

Fink made headlines this week with , which put the climate emergency front that generate more than 25% of their revenue from thermal coal production, his letter was hailed as a landmark move. But, before we get too laudatory, it’s worth asking: what is BlackRock?

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