US state anti-ESG campaigns
Laws passed by several US states barring their public funds from placing money with financial institutions deemed hostile to fossil fuels, in direct reaction to the financial sector's climate policies.
US state anti-ESG campaigns refer to a set of laws passed since 2021 by several Republican-led states, barring their public pension funds and treasuries from awarding mandates to financial institutions deemed to be boycotting fossil fuels in the name of environmental, social and governance criteria. This movement directly reverses the logic of insurance divestment campaigns and financial-sector climate alliances, penalizing not investment in fossil fuels but rather its exclusion, which puts major asset managers and some insurers in a position where their public climate commitments can cost them public mandates in certain states. For insurers managing assets on behalf of American public bodies, this dynamic creates an unprecedented legal and commercial risk, where two neighboring states can demand diametrically opposed investment policies from the same institution, making any public climate stance more costly to hold. The movement, alongside antitrust legal risk, contributed to the gradual withdrawal of several major insurers from sectoral climate alliances between 2023 and 2024.
In August 2022, Texas placed BlackRock on its list of companies deemed to be boycotting fossil fuels under its 2021 law, triggering the withdrawal of roughly 8.5 billion dollars in assets managed by the group on behalf of Texas public pension funds.
anti-ESG backlash, anti-ESG state laws, BlackRock boycott
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