“How We Survive” returns April 9
How We Survive
Marketplace
5 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 2 April 2025
⏱️ 3 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Can capitalism save us? In 2020, it seemed like the answer was “possibly.” That year, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink shook up the investment world in his annual letter to companies, in which he made climate change a major focus. On CNBC he stated, “We believe a portfolio that focuses on sustainability and climate change will be a portfolio that outperforms … and it will also help the planet.” But that was before a fierce backlash ensued.
In this season of “How We Survive,” we follow the money — from a gathering of religious investors in New York City to a yacht in the Port of Houston — to trace how climate-conscious investing (the E in ESG) evolved from a small corner of the market, to a mainstream strategy, to a bogeyman of the right. We uncover the ways climate-conscious investing lives on today and ask: Can we invest our way out of the climate crisis?
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I have a confession to make. |
| 0:03.2 | Back in 2020, I felt somewhat hopeful about the climate crisis, because for the first time, |
| 0:10.6 | it seemed like Wall Street was taking it seriously. |
| 0:13.9 | BlackRock CEO, Larry Fink's annual letter out this morning and the world's largest asset |
| 0:18.3 | manager announcing the firm will make climate change a focus of all of its investment strategy. We're talking about trillions of dollars that could |
| 0:26.4 | help move the global economy away from fossil fuels. I maybe naively wondered, could capitalism |
| 0:34.2 | save us? We believe a portfolio that focuses on sustainability and climate change will be a great investment. |
| 0:43.2 | And it will help the planet. |
| 0:47.4 | It was a moment of hope, but it didn't last long. |
| 0:51.2 | The backlash was fierce. |
| 0:54.1 | Go woke, go broke. You're buying shares in oil and gas |
| 0:58.2 | companies, and then you're voting against oil and gas development. Conservative nonprofit is pushing |
| 1:03.0 | back against chief executives launching an ad campaign to fight what it calls woke |
| 1:07.5 | capitalism. It's more insidious than communism or the Nazis. |
| 1:12.3 | The backlash grew so big, it took on a life of its own, |
| 1:16.6 | with groups on the right boycotting financial firms |
| 1:20.2 | and accusing business leaders of practicing woke capitalism. |
| 1:24.9 | It's so kind of absurd on the face. |
| 1:27.6 | Like nothing Black Rock is doing is woke. |
| 1:30.6 | In this season of how we survive, |
| 1:32.9 | we look at the trillions of dollars of investor money |
| 1:35.9 | flowing through the economy |
... |
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