Abstract
This chapter examines the role played by the private sector in global environmental governance, with a focus on the green credentials of the world’s largest investment management company, BlackRock, and a selection of the top Fortune 500 companies. An assessment is made of the contribution of the largest investment management companies to combat climate change through the promotion of environmental, social, and governance ETFs and green bonds to millennial investors, and BlackRock’s regulation of the composition of boards of directors according to performance in monitoring and reporting Scope 1, 2, and 3 CO2 emissions. In the context of the ongoing reliance on non-climate compliant investments to ensure satisfactory portfolio performance, the chapter investigates investment management and private industry decisions as they intersect with indigenous peoples’ rights in the context of climate change and the rights of nature, with reference to the political activism of the Huaorani, Sarayaku Kichwa, Cofán, and Sápara nations of the Ecuadorian Amazon.
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Etchart, L. (2022). Sustainable Funds and “Cuddly Capitalism”: Indigenous Land Defenders and the Greenwashing of Investment Management. In: Global Governance of the Environment, Indigenous Peoples and the Rights of Nature. Governance, Development, and Social Inclusion in Latin America. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-81519-6_7
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