Hello there.

Wall Street ghosted its climate pledges, and half of those $100 million CEO pay packages have flopped. But on the back of broken promises, the old guard still isn’t willing to give up the ghost…

Surely, this will have no consequences:

Let’s get started.

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Remember when Larry Fink wore that climate-themed scarf to Davos and declared BlackRock would reshape global finance to fight climate change? Turns out it was mostly cosplay 😂 Six years after Wall Street's grand promises to use $130 trillion in assets to “save the planet,” the movement has essentially collapsed.

Here's the speed run: In 2020, Fink kicked off the ESG craze after big clients (mostly European and Japanese pension funds) started asking for green investment products. BlackRock obliged, other banks followed, and by 2021, everyone from JPMorgan to Bank of America was pledging trillions in "sustainable finance." The Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero racked up 450 members, and BlackRock alone pulled in $25 billion of new ESG money that year.

Then came the lawsuits, state investigations, and more than 100 bills designed to punish ESG-friendly firms. Politically-backed treasurers yanked over $1 billion from BlackRock. After Trump's 2024 reelection, almost every major American bank fled the Net-Zero Banking Alliance, which promptly folded. Bank of America walked back its coal and Arctic drilling restrictions. And Fink's latest investor letter featured a whopping zero mentions of climate change. And now… big banks and institutions seem to be realizing that unstable wind and solar energy can’t power AI data centers. The new narrative is nuclear energy.

The investor takeaway is straightforward. ESG as a broad narrative is getting buried, but clean energy investment still hit $279 billion last year. Companies that can play both sides (think nuclear, natural gas, even some renewables) might be the new sweet spot.

If you've ever wondered whether paying a CEO nine figures makes shareholders rich, the data just came in. Spoiler: not really.

Of the 20 "moonshot" pay packages that companies handed out at the peak of the CEO megadeal fad (we're talking $100 million+ with ambitious performance targets), half were canceled or forfeited within a few years. Only a quarter of those companies managed to beat the S&P 500. Four packages did hit all their targets and soared close to $1 billion apiece, but that's four out of twenty.

For retail investors, this is a reminder to actually read the proxy statements on executive comp. If a company is handing out massive equity grants tied to targets that look more aspirational than achievable, that's capital being diluted from your pocket into someone else's. Companies where management owns real equity (bought with their own money, not just options) tend to care more about the stock price than those playing with house money.

Analysis provided by ​altindex.com​.

Remember to always DYOR.

Anglogold Ashanti is a leading global gold mining company with a diverse portfolio of high-quality assets in key gold-producing regions across the globe. The company is committed to sustainable mining practices and aims to deliver long-term value to shareholders through operational excellence, cost management, and innovation. Anglogold Ashanti's operations are spread over ten countries, including significant properties in Africa, Australia, and the Americas.

Current price: $103.60
Target price: $125

Atlantic Union is a regional financial services company operating primarily in the United States. The company provides a comprehensive range of services, including retail and commercial banking, investment banking, and asset management. With a significant market presence and a growing customer base, Atlantic Union is entrenched as a formidable entity in the financial services sector.

Current price: $39.05
Target price: $43.08

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Till next time,
— Brandon and Blake of Invested Inc.