It’s Wednesday, January 29, and the world’s most profitable hedge fund is taking a stand for the climate.
Pundits hawking the myth that climate action equals economic doom might want to chat with Chris Hohn. His $30 billion hedge fund, TCI Fund Management, is pressuring the boards of companies it invests in to fire CEOs who don’t make “credible” emission reduction plans. If they don’t, Hohn says, TCI will sell its shares.
TCI is still profiting off clients with large carbon footprints, like the Madrid-based airport conglomerate Ferrovial SA, but Hohn says keeping that inside influence is part of the point. He’s pushing Ferrovial’s board to pledge even more aggressive carbon reductions (it has already committed to reducing emissions by nearly a third by 2030). Hohn has also personally donated $260,000 to Extinction Rebellion, the decentralized climate activist group that promotes civil disobedience.
TCI’s announcement follows another major investor, BlackRock, which recently committed to selling off all its risky climate investments, starting with some coal producers. Whether investors like Hohn have genuine motivations for climate action, or pragmatic awareness that carbon-emitting companies have an outdated business model, moving billions of dollars away from companies that don’t act on climate is certainly nothing to sneeze at.
— Sierra Garcia
The Smog
Need-to-know basis
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