Investment News recently covered a new anti-anti-ESG campaign "to strike back against well-funded attacks targeting American businesses, investors, and consumers engaging in the practice" of considering environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues when investing.
This campaign is sorely needed, as conservatives have been rallying against ESG investing for years now. For those who are unaware, ESG investing is basically a preference for companies that will profit from accelerating the energy transition, that aren't as likely to be subject to costly social justice boycotts, and that aren't riddled with corruption and other corporate governance issues.
But what is the latest on the anti-ESG front? Well, Tennessee’s attorney general recently brought a lawsuit against BlackRock, a multinational investment company that is hardly an actual environmental or climate champion, over its nominal ESG investment strategies.
While coverage of this lawsuit in the deniersphere wasn't particularly exciting or worth diving into, those seeking to understand how and why something as wonky as ESG is being used as a front in the culture war need only take a step back to see how this coverage was situated on disinformation outlets’ websites.
On The Federalist’s homepage on Tuesday, news of Tennessee's suit was situated between a headline claiming "a left-wing appeals panel is rigging Trump's J6 case," and stories criticizing "Covid handouts," abortion, and Pope Francis's approval of same-sex relationships. The outlet is packaging anti-ESG climate disinfo alongside election denial, COVID conspiracies, anti-abortion rhetoric, and anti-LGBTQ+ bigotry.
Similarly, on The Daily Signal's homepage, the top story claiming "climate activists are trying an 'end run around democracy'" was flanked by COVID conspiracies, transphobic disinformation, a piece about spending on Ukraine, and another on a "secret border deal with Democrats."
Once again, at the Daily Wire, the ESG story was placed next to coverage of Governor Greg Abbott signing a "bill making it a crime to illegally enter Texas," while a banner at the top of the page promoted the fracker-backed website's movie "Lady Ballers," mocking trans athletes.
As the anti-ESG campaign goes into year four, it should be painfully clear that climate disinformation is being deliberately used as fodder for the fossil-fueled, billionaire-backed, bigoted right-wing reactionary universe where COVID was supposedly a Chinese bioweapon smuggled over the Mexican border by transgender terrorist driving an EV at the bidding of a "cabal" of "Jewish race grifters" pulling the strings on the "woke weapon" of responsible investment.
In other words, the anti-ESG campaign fits into the Right’s evidence-denying, hate-filled ideology because it too is deeply harmful and makes no logical sense.