Navigating the ESG backlash

US TV host Tucker Carlson calls ESG “a destructive force pressuring governments to sabotage their own economies.”

There are those who hate ESG, and there are those who don’t have a problem with the ideology behind it but think it is used as a kind of smokescreen. They think they can wash bad behaviour with green colours without any attempt to change that behaviour.

People who work in ESG, even its greatest advocates, have sympathy with the greenwashing charge. Companies that talk the ESG talk without action to back it up are a huge problem.

But Carlson says ESG conflicts with the fiduciary duty of companies.

Is he right? ESG advocates say it is an opportunity that ESG can support recruitment and staff retention in an age of labour shortages.

Others see an analogy between the principles underpinning ESG and a disruptive technology. They talk about the need for a resilient supply chain, the opportunities with net zero, and how companies that are late to the ESG party might never catch up. 

In the latest ESG Show, Alison Taylor, Clinical associate professor at NYU, executive director at Ethical Systems and author of Higher Ground and Paul Clements-Hunt, Founder, The Blended Capital Group; Special Advisor Mishcon Impact, Mishcon de Reya LLP; Coined ESG (2004); Delivered the UN Principles for Responsible Investment (2006), join me Michael Baxter as we discuss navigating the ESG Backlash.

Join us on the ESG Show on May 8th at 4 pm BST, 11am ET, 8.30pm India, 5pm CEST, 11pm SGT. 

Click here to attend live, or if you can’t make it live, click the link to watch it on catchup.