Ada Recinos, Deputy Press Secretary, Federal Communications, ada.recinos@sierraclub.org
Today, BlackRock released CEO Larry Fink’s annual chairman’s letter. Two central themes of the letter are on helping Americans save for retirement and the important role that capital markets play both in retirement savings and economic development.
In response, Jessye Waxman, Senior Campaign Strategist in the Sierra Club Fossil-Free Finance campaign said:
“Larry Fink is right that retirement will be an even harder proposition 30 years from now. But Fink’s letter fails to recognize that the climate crisis is one of the biggest drivers of financial instability and the diminished prospects for long-term savings. BlackRock’s strategy to date has demonstrated a failure to grapple with its fiduciary responsibility to mitigate systemic risk.
"BlackRock continues to promote an outdated all-of-the-above energy strategy—which it passes off as “pragmatism”—that is accelerating the climate crisis and putting its clients’ long-term savings at risk. But ensuring a secure retirement in the decades to come requires taking action now to ensure economic and financial well-being, which necessitates preventing the worst impacts of climate change. BlackRock must adopt investment and stewardship practices that support real-world decarbonization to pave the way for a future where stable retirement is viable.”
About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.