Amazon Watch – 2018-10-06 00:36:12
https://amazonwatch.org/news/2018/1002-the-most-destructive-force-for-climate-change-youve-never-heard-of
ACTION ALERT: The Most Destructive Force for
Climate Change You’ve Never Heard Of
Amazon Watch
(October 2, 2018) — A company few have even heard of is one of the most destructive forces for climate change in the world.
BlackRock, the world’s largest investment firm, holds more shares in fossil fuel and other industries that cause climate change than any other company in the world. That means that BlackRock’s portfolio constitutes a huge liability for putting the planet on a path towards runaway climate change.
BlackRock’s investments include companies like GeoPark, which is currently trying to start drilling for oil deep in the Peruvian Amazon on the territory of the Achuar people.
As we wrote about in our November 2017 report naming BlackRock as one of the major financial institutions driving Amazon destruction, oil companies like GeoPark wouldn’t have the primary tool it needs — money — to drill for oil in indigenous territories in the Amazon rainforest were it not for the financial backing of investment firms like BlackRock.
Meanwhile, BlackRock’s CEO, Larry Fink, travels the world saying that businesses should have a “social purpose,” play a positive role in society, and think “long term.” Larry Fink wants to be thought of as a socially-responsible corporate leader, but BlackRock refuses to divest from tar sands, coal, Arctic oil, Amazon crude, and rainforest destruction, and it votes against shareholder demands for climate action and transparency.
That is not social responsibility.
This hypocrisy and continued financing of the industries causing climate change is a BIG Problem. That’s why last week we joined with the Sierra Club, Friends of the Earth, and the Sunrise Project to launch a new campaign: BlackRock’s Big Problem. We’re calling on BlackRock to stop working with companies that destroy the climate and our precious ecosystems like the Amazon.
We launched the campaign with some creative actions near BlackRock’s headquarters in New York City: check out the video to see what we did! We got great coverage in a number of investment-focused news outlets, and we are building a strong social media presence (follow the campaign on Twitter and Facebook).
As the largest asset manager in the world — part of an elite club of money management companies that control approximately US $90 trillion — BlackRock is one of the largest worldwide shareholders in fossil fuel, agribusiness, and other industries that destroy rainforests and the climate.
The company wields enormous influence with little accountability for its investment approach or shareholder votes. It’s time it takes responsibility for its massive contribution to climate change and rainforest destruction.
Watch the video, then take action to support the Achuar here!
ACTION: Tell GeoPark Oil Company:
Stay Out of Achuar Territory!
The Achuar of Peru’s Pastaza River in the northern Amazon have sent many oil companies packing. Now GeoPark, a company based in Chile, thinks it can succeed where Talisman, Oxy, and ARCO failed.
The Achuar remain as committed as ever to resisting extractive industries in their ancestral territory, helping defend its biodiversity and the global climate. Now they’ve asked international civil society to stand with them as they defend their sacred rainforests from an attack on their ancestral way of life.
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