BlackRock's Climate Ultimatum
When the world's largest asset manager declared climate risk a core investment concern in January 2020, it triggered a reorientation of mainstream finance. What followed was more complicated.
DWS SEC Fine
A whistleblower exposed the gap between an asset manager's ESG marketing and its actual investment practice.
ENEL and the Birth of the SLB Market
One bond deal created an entirely new market category, and then tested what happens when targets are missed.
Engine No. 1 vs ExxonMobil
A $40 million stake in the world's largest oil company was enough to install three new directors and force a reckoning over climate strategy.
HSBC Greenwashing
A UK regulator banned a major bank's ads for promoting tree-planting while it continued financing fossil fuels at scale.
Lombard Odier: Ice Cubes and Burning Logs
A Swiss bank created a four-word metaphor that became the standard language for explaining climate investment strategy.
Marfrig Transition Bond
A meatpacker labelled a bond 'transition' to clean up its supply chain. Then proceeds were traced to illegal Amazon deforestation.
Norway Divests from Oil
The world's largest sovereign wealth fund, built entirely on oil revenues, voted in 2019 to divest from pure-play fossil fuel companies. The rationale was financial, not political. That made it more significant, not less.
PG&E Bankruptcy
Climate-driven wildfires destroyed a utility worth tens of billions: the first climate change bankruptcy.
Seychelles Blue Bond
The world's smallest economies are pioneering the most innovative climate finance instruments.
The Great Coal Exit
Between 2013 and 2023, more than 200 financial institutions stopped financing coal. It is the most complete example in history of stranded asset theory becoming market reality.
Volkswagen Dieselgate
A company that built fraud into its products while marketing them as clean.