BlackRock's departure from the Net Zero Asset Managers initiative is being framed as yet another sign of a Western cultural tipping point away from sustainability. Unrightly so, because among citizens it is a positive tipping point that is on the verge of being reached.

The world's largest asset manager has left the Net Zero Asset Managers initiative. This means BlackRock no longer commits to the goals of this climate initiative. Ironically, around the same time it was announced that one of BlackRock's clients, American Airlines, would not have acted in the best interests of its employees by partnering with “ESG activist” BlackRock, a United States court ruled. BlackRock being labeled an ESG activist – this shows how effective the anti-woke campaign has been. And all the while, the pension plan at issue does not even contain any ESG-specific strategy.

This recent farce was the (provisional) finale episode in a series of worrisome news reports. In recent weeks, all major US banks, including JP Morgan, Bank of America and Citigroup, stepped out of a similar climate alliance for banks, the Net Zero Banking Alliance. And then there was Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg, who both scaled back initiatives around diversity and ended the use of fact checkers (for now only in the United States). He justified this turnaround by referring to Trump's victory as a cultural tipping point that cannot be ignored: people once again give highest priority to free speech (read: anti-woke noise). Are we indeed in the midst of a cultural shift in which anti-climate and anti-diversity are (again) becoming the norm?

Mostly greenwashing

Of course, it is bad news that major US financial institutions are no longer part of these climate alliances. Influenced by the threat of lawsuits, they are now even less inclined to include sustainability considerations in their activities. At the same time, we should not be naive: even when they did participate in climate initiatives, these institutions happily continued to finance the fossil industry. The green membership was mainly a nice marketing tool. And now that the political tide is turning, guided by the same opportunism they are just as quick to get out again.

These institutions were and are primarily concerned with maintaining and if possible increasing their profits and political influence. Therefore, one can safely qualify their membership as greenwashing. The departure of these companies is in that sense a relief: it makes it easier to distinguish between sustainable and unsustainable financial institutions again. Moreover, these multinationals still have to comply with (European) sustainability laws and regulations, and even when they focus purely on financial returns, they cannot ignore climate risks.

Cultural tipping points towards sustainability are near

So, the supposed cultural shift at major US financial institutions is actually not that much of a shift. Does the same hold for developments in the real world? Judging by the election results in many Western countries, it seems that citizens are drifting further and further away from climate ambitions and toward “anti-woke”. Yet research shows that in the US, more than half the population is more concerned about climate change than ever before, and two-thirds believe that sustainable products and services should be the standard for businesses.

The Dutch also do feel increasing climate urgency, and more sustainable behavior is rapidly becoming normalised. Research by Triodos shows that a majority of Dutch people is in favour of transitions crucial to the transition to a more sustainable economy. In the field of energy and society, a tipping point is even within reach: almost 25% of the Dutch have already sustainably adjusted their behavior or are planning to do so.

A societal norm shift towards sustainability thus seems close, although we hear much less about it because of all the worrisome news reports. This is not surprising, because resistance grows just before a cultural tipping point is reached, as the realisation sets in that a change is imminent. This leads to increasingly fierce collision between groups in society.

The political and corporate reality is not always an accurate reflection of the actions and desires of citizens. Hence, a political headwind is not the same as a cultural shift. Rather, you could say that we are witnessing the final attempt of the anti-progress movement to keep things as is. One that cannot undo the fact that a growing number of people really do want a more sustainable world.

This is a translation of Joeri de Wilde's column published by Financial Investigator.