BlackRock CEO Larry Fink says oil and gas companies play an important role in bridging global infrastructures to a decarbonized future.
Climate leaders, however, reject the idea, saying his view amounts to “making the political choice to reject climate science.”
Fink added that government must place a critical regulatory role. “Businesses can’t do this alone, and they cannot be the climate police,” he said.
BlackRock CEO Larry Fink’s most recent annual letter called the need to decarbonize the global economy the largest investment opportunity of this generation, but he didn’t go far enough in his willingness to transition away from the oil and gas industries, climate activists say.
Fink said traditional fossil fuel companies’ global infrastructures are necessary in order to build a bridge toward that decarbonized future.
“The transition to net zero is already uneven with different parts of the global economy moving at different speeds. It will not happen overnight. We need to pass through shades of brown to shades of green,” Fink wrote in the annual letter.
“To ensure continuity of affordable energy supplies during the transition, traditional fossil fuels like natural gas will play an important role both for power generation and heating in certain regions, as well as for the production of hydrogen,” he wrote.
