Vanguard, Second-largest Fund Firm, Quits Net Zero Climate Alliance
Vanguard, the world's second-largest mutual and exchange-traded fund manager, is pulling out of a major financial-sector alliance intended to help tackle climate change, the firm announced Wednesday. | Vanguard, in a statement, said it will track its progress independent of the alliance, as an effort to provide "clarity" to its investors. Some environmental groups... argued that such a move is kowtowing to "anti-woke" sentiment that claims investments focused on the impending clean-energy transition and other pro-climate actions only come at the expense of investment returns. The alliance, called the Net Zero Asset Managers (NZAM), was launched in late 2020 to encourage asset managers to hit a net-zero emission target by 2050 and help keep a rise in global temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius. ● Along with BlackRock BLK, -0.16% and State Street STT, +8.19%, Vanguard, with roughly $8.1 trillion under management, is considered one of the Big Three index fund managers that dominate much of American retail investing and retirement planning.