American CEOs want all the kudos for sustainability promises, but none of the accountability

Gina Gambetta, reporting for Responsible Investor:

The Business Roundtable (BRT) has called for the banning of environmental, social and “political” shareholder proposals.

The lobbyist association of CEOs of major US companies and financial institutions made the recommendation in a report published last week.

One of the most insidious effects that big corporations have on climate politics is through their lobbying efforts. Lobby groups like the Business Roundtable and the US Chamber of Commerce have a knee-jerk opposition to any climate regulations. These CEOs don’t want to be regulated by democratically elected governments, but even Milton Friedman had to agree that they need to be accountable to their shareholders.

Being accountable is obviously no fun, so these CEOs decided to ask their regulator friends to stop their legal owners from asking tough questions about environmental and social promises they made.

If this sounds familiar, that’s because Exxon sued its shareholders last year to shut them up about climate change. Despite strong shareholder pushback, Exxon’s intimidation tactics worked.

Now the members of the Business Roundtable, including CEOs of ESG investing cheerleaders (the likes of BlackRock and JPMorganChase) and big-tech climate leaders (Google, Apple, Salesforce and Microsoft), are joining their esteemed fossil fuel colleagues (Chevron, ConocoPhillips, and of course, Exxon) in demanding less accountability.