Fossil Fuel Divestment Targeted by Texas for 10 Financial Companies and 340+ Funds

In another advance in the battle between the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) movement and individual states in the U.S., Texas announced on Aug. 24 that ten financial companies and almost 350 funds would boycott fossil fuel companies.

In September 2021, Texas Senate Bill 13 will require the state comptroller to publish such a list. State governments must divest from ESG-led funds and companies under the legislation passed in June that year.

Glenn Hegar explained the reasoning behind the ban in a press release on Aug. 24: “The [ESG] movement has led to an opaque and perverse system in which some financial companies no longer make decisions that are in their shareholders' and clients' best interests, but instead use their financial power to advance a secrecy-tainted social and political agenda.

BlackRock, BNP Paribas, Credit Suisse Group, Danske Bank, Jupiter Fund Management, Nordea Bank, Schroders, Svenska Handelsbanken, Swedbank, and UBS Group are among the ten listed companies.

25 August 2022