{"id":228559,"date":"2025-07-01T06:12:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-01T06:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/228559\/"},"modified":"2025-07-01T06:12:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-01T06:12:11","slug":"aberdeen-chair-says-save-the-world-claim-by-asset-managers-was-a-mistake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/228559\/","title":{"rendered":"Aberdeen chair says \u2018save the world\u2019 claim by asset managers was a \u2018mistake\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free<\/p>\n

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.<\/p>\n

Asset managers made a \u201chuge mistake\u201d in claiming the investment industry could \u201csave the world\u201d, the departing chair of the UK\u2019s Aberdeen Group said, over-egging their role in environment, social and government issues for marketing purposes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sir Douglas Flint, a former HSBC chair, told a City of London conference this week that their \u201cridiculously extravagant claims\u201d had opened up asset managers to legal risk.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The most grandiose claims by financiers were driven by a mindset of \u201cwe\u2019re not really about investing money, we\u2019re just jolly good people and we\u2019re saving the world\u201d, Flint said. <\/p>\n

\u201cOur industry then made a kind of huge mistake, it became a marketing thing, let\u2019s tell everyone we\u2019re saving the world, we\u2019re saving the planet.\u201d The overly general statements were \u201ca feast\u201d for US-based lawyers, he said.<\/p>\n

The world\u2019s largest asset managers have faced attacks on their ESG strategies since the election of President Trump in the US, where attorneys-general in a series of Republican states have accused them of colluding and unfairly excluding fossil fuel companies.<\/p>\n

BlackRock last month sought the dismissal of a lawsuit by Texas and other Republican-led states that claimed asset managers conspired to suppress coal production by withdrawing capital.<\/p>\n

Alongside Vanguard, BlackRock is one of the investing heavyweights to have quit the voluntary Net Zero Asset Managers initiative, where Aberdeen was also a signatory. <\/p>\n

The group launched in 2020 had described itself as committed to \u201cthe goal of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 or sooner\u201d. It suspended activities in January this year, one week before the Trump inauguration.<\/p>\n

Flint also welcomed what he described as the \u201cexpunging\u201d of acronyms that referenced ESG, as well as diversity and inclusion, \u201cthat are in every search engine for a US litigation lawyer\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a counterpoint, Standard Chartered chief executive Bill Winters highlighted the practice of \u201cgreenhushing\u201d last week, telling a London Climate Action Week event that he was ashamed that he was \u201cnot anywhere near as vocal in this environment as I had been at earlier times\u201d when it was more \u201cpolitically acceptable\u201d.<\/p>\n

Pension funds and institutional investors with a long-term outlook have continued to encourage asset managers<\/a> to focus on their fiduciary duty and financial risks posed by extreme weather events.<\/p>\n

Activists have also pushed Aberdeen to cut its oil and gas investments, including by mocking it in a video game<\/a> sent to employees which was quickly banned on company servers.<\/p>\n

Aberdeen Investments is still \u201ccommitted to helping tackle climate change\u201d, for its clients, shareholders, and \u201cfuture generations\u201d, it says on its website.<\/p>\n

Asset managers now framed environmental issues in a \u201cmuch more rational way\u201d, Flint said, as a choice between shorter or longer term investment strategies.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe try and choose the companies that are making the most effective steps towards transition in the portfolios that we manage,\u201d he added. \u201cBut it\u2019s our clients who mandate the areas and the pace that we go at.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cathy Shepherd, Citi\u2019s global head of clean energy transition for corporate banking, also told the London City Week audience that ESG investing had suffered from being seen as \u201ca morality idea rather than a business idea\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think we really need to change that\u2009.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009it needs to be about business performance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Climate Capital\"\"<\/p>\n

Where climate change meets business, markets and politics.\u00a0Explore the FT\u2019s coverage here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Are you curious about the FT\u2019s environmental sustainability commitments?\u00a0Find out more about our science-based targets here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":228560,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3093],"tags":[51,474,2499,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-228559","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-finance","10":"tag-personal-finance","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114776502722580489","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228559"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228559\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}