J.P. Morgan Asset Management leaves environmental investing coalition

investmentnews.com:

J.P. Morgan Asset Management has quit a global coalition of investors that aims to ensure the world’s largest corporate greenhouse gas emitters take necessary action on climate change.

The Financial Times said Thursday that the Wall Street firm has left Climate Action 100+, stating that it has strong enough capacity in-house to handle the corporate engagement necessary to meet its environmental values. JPMAM joined the group in 2020.

The coalition boasts BlackRock, Pimco, and Goldman Sachs among its members, although some high-profile investors never joined and some of the smaller firms that originally signed up have since left. There are more than 700 investors managing over $68 trillion in assets signed up.

Explaining its decision to leave the group, JPMAM told the FT:

“The firm has built a team of 40 dedicated sustainable investing professionals. Given these strengths and the evolution of its own stewardship capabilities, JPMAM has determined that it will no longer participate in Climate Action 100+ engagements.”

While there has been pushback against the surge of ESG, especially in the U.S. in recent years, a recent report from Morgan Stanley shows that interest in sustainable investing among individual investors globally is surging and the U.S. leads the way in several metrics.

BlackRock has seen its ESG business soar but was recently called out by non-profit ShareAction for its low level of support for climate resolutions in a study examining how often asset managers vote in accordance with climate goals.

Global ESG bond sales reached $150 billion in January 2024, the highest level since the green debt market began in 2007.