"All these compnaies divesting their coking coal for ESG reasons are morons." Not as moronic, however, than people blindly chasing ESG investing as a strategy, because the returns from doing so have been eye-popping poor:
Take the last 12-month performances of the various Betashares climate-change related ETFs:
Solar ETF (TANN):
-36%Climate Change Innovation ETF (ERTH):
-12%Even the Energy Transition Metals ETF (XMET) has done nothing:
0% return
By comparison, over that period the
All Ords is up 10% (and that excludes dividends, which would add another ~3%) and
WHC is up 40% (plus a further 8% in dividend yield).
Going back over a longer period (3-years) the only Betshares ETF that has been around that long is ERTH, and it's 3-year return has been
minus 11%. By comparison, over that investment timeframe,
WHC's share price rose four-fold (and cumulative dividends received now account for two-thirds of the share price at the start of the period).
It certainly looks like peak ESG-fad has occurred:
The Dramatic Downfall of ESG Investing | Markets Insider (*.com).
(20min delay)