Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) principles have rapidly taken hold in the financial sector in recent years.
Now, against the backdrop of increasing regulatory enforcement, rising anti-ESG activism, and criticism of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) climate disclosure proposal, ESG skeptics are coming to the fore, pushing back against the SEC and developing new financial products that buck the ESG consensus.
In recent weeks and months, authorities have started cracking down on ESG funds alleged to be misrepresenting their products.
German prosecutors raided Deutsche Bank and asset manager DWS on May 31 over accusations of ‘greenwashing’—exaggerating the environmental soundness of some of their investments….