BlackRock — which for years has courted controversy with its focus on so-called ESG, or Environmental Social Governance investing — is considering an exit of the so-called “Net Zero Alliance,” a coalition of top corporations who pledge to reach zero-carbon emissions by 2050, The Post has learned.

The investment giant led by billionaire CEO Larry Fink is poised for a pivot as pressure grows on big corporations to reverse woke business agendas, and comes as others leave the coalition including mega bank JPMorgan Chase. In recent weeks. Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley have announced plans to leave the coalition.

But BlackRock’s departure is more significant. The world’s largest investment fund, with more than $10 trillion in assets under management, was a leader in ESG investing, with its top executives including Fink evangelizing on the need to use the company’s investing might to force corporations to reduce their carbon footprint.

When it joined the Net Zero Alliance in 2021 with other major corporations, it was seen as a way to institutionalize so-called sustainable investing in the corporate ecosystem.

But soon thereafter, a swift political backlash developed; sustainable energy investing faced stiff opposition to GOP politicians who ran large state pension funds in red states such as Texas and Florida. Rising inflation came after the COVID lockdowns ended, and higher gas prices following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine made sustainability efforts politically toxic. 

Members of Congress even suggested that the Net Zero Alliance violated antitrust laws since it forced corporations to operate in concert to achieve what they called dubious aims of climate sustainability while causing working class people to suffer. 

Fink himself became the subject of scorn and BlackRock lost more than $1 trillion on assets as red state treasurers boycotted the firm for managing pension assets.

Fink has been slowly walking back his once strident proselytizing of ESG. BlackRock money managers in the US are no longer under pressure to use ESG screens in all investment decisions, instead doing it just for clients that ask for such methods.

It’s a further sign that BlackRock and corporate America in general sees even more pushback not just in ESG investing, but in all aspects of corporate wokeism. In recent years major corporations have begun to embrace progressive policies in the boardroom using so-called Diversity Equity and Inclusion policies in hiring and image making.

A consumer backlash ensued as well as a Supreme Court ruling making such de facto hiring quotas illegal, prompting scores of companies to now reverse their DEI policies.

In coming GOP president Donald Trump has vowed to end DEI in federal contracting, and to issue executive orders reversing the Biden administration’s attempt to employ ESG to scaled back US oil drilling, adding to the pressure on big companies to reverse such progressive policies.