Blackrock Cares So Very Much About The Environment That It Totally Ignores Meat-Deforestation Link
In July, a major policy to combat global warming was announced by BlackRock, the world’s largest investment fund manager. The company said it would take concrete action against at least 53 companies for their inaction regarding global warming and place 191 others under observation. Upon launching the project, the company’s CEO, Larry Fink, announced that the climate crisis will completely change finance, and “companies, investors, and governments must prepare for a significant reallocation of capital.”
But the announcement left out one of the major drivers of global warming: the meat industry, which is the main cause of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. The words cattle and deforestation are missing from the 30 pages of the report in which BlackRock describes the actions it is taking to combat climate change. The company omitted its stake in JBS, the world’s largest meat exporter.
Part of the investments in the Brazilian multinational are made through a BlackRock fund that “favours companies with less production of greenhouse gases.” The fund in question has 53 million Brazilian reais ($9.8 million) in equity and invests in companies listed on the Carbon Efficient Index (ICO2) created by the Brazilian Stock Exchange and the state development bank BNDES. The index is supposed to include companies with “transparent practices regarding their greenhouse gas emissions.”
In May this year, Blackrock became JBS’s third-largest shareholder – behind J&F Investimentos, controlled by the company’s founders, and BNDES. A series of reports and studies published this year showed cases of illegal deforestation among JBS suppliers, even though it pledged not to buy cattle from deforesters more than ten years ago. JBS has repeatedly denied the problems found in its supply chain.
EDIT
https://news.mongabay.com/2020/09/blackrock-silent-on-livestock-in-latest-global-warming-policy/
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