Amoral corporate powers make for unreliable climate champions

An editorial in the Guardian reflects on the recent corporate retreat from advocating for climate actions:

The deterioration of GFANZ reveals the weaknesses in relying on businesses to do the right thing. Its goals were always fuzzy: instead of calling for hard limits on the financing of fossil fuels, GFANZ encouraged banks to invest in low-carbon sectors. It has since drifted further from its mission, expanding its membership to companies without net zero commitments. Though it was never supposed to be a substitute for government action, inactive governments welcomed it. Boris Johnson, prime minister at the time of its creation, promised the alliance would help to “build back greener”.

Many green finance initiatives have less to do with preventing climate breakdown than minimising investors’ exposure to the risks this creates, such as carbon taxes or curbs on fossil fuels. “Green ethical investing”, writes Adrienne Buller, is a way of betting “on the likelihood of a greener economy, rather than contribute to bringing that economy into being”. When the risk of regulation wanes, as it has under Trump, so too does the impetus for this style of investing.

We like to think of Big Business and Big Finance as powerful agents of change, but we often forget (1) they wield their powers for amoral purposes, and (2) their amoral sense of power crumbles in the face of popular pseudo-moral powers.