I much rather w00lies persist with ESG
"We're at a bit of an inflection point within the sustainable investing landscape in the US, where it's really incumbent upon sustainable investing advocates to be very clear about what they're doing within their investment processes to regain investor confidence in the sector," Alyssa Stankiewicz, associate director of sustainability research at Morningstar, told Yahoo Finance while referring to the Morningstar report.
Stankiewicz said that political scrutiny over ESG funds has surged primarily because of "greenwashing," which has had a "chilling effect" on demand.
The underperformance of ESG investing comes as corporate America has dialed back the number of mentions of "ESG" or synonyms related to ESG on investor calls this earnings season.
For some context, peak ESG and related synonyms, such as "climate change" and "clean energy" and green energy" and net zero," among other terms, peaked at 28,000 mentions in the first quarter of 2022. Ever since, the number of mentions has rapidly plunged. Halfway through the first quarter earnings season, mentions are around 4,800.
Andy Wiechmann, the Chief Financial Officer of MSCI, mentioned during his earnings call that "Clients are taking a more measured approach to how they integrate ESG."
On a Jan. 12 earnings call, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink explained how his firm plans to purchase private equity firm Global Infrastructure Partners without mentioning ESG. This makes sense since BlackRock dropped the ESG term after blowback last summer.
Woke capitalism is undergoing a rebranding, and the term ESG is being phased out by corporate America.
