House Republicans Target ‘Climate Cartel’ Advocating for U.S. Industry Decarbonization

A “climate cartel” of activists and financial organizations is working together to push American companies to impose radical environmental goals, according to a report published Tuesday by the House Judiciary Committee.

The new report, called “Climate Control: Exposing The Decarbonization Collusion in Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Investing,” features the preliminary findings of the committee’s investigation into the relationship between climate activists and large financial institutions. The committee surveyed 272,294 documents and 2,565,258 pages of non-public information, according to the report.

“The Committee’s ongoing investigation into collusion between left-wing activists and major financial institutions has revealed that a climate cartel is working to decarbonize the U.S. economy — with disastrous implications for American consumers,” the report said. “The climate cartel has declared war on our way of life, escalating its attacks on free markets and demanding that companies slash output of the critical products and services that allow Americans to drive, fly, and eat.”

Much of the 41-page report examined the influence of Climate Action 100+, an investors group that pushes environmental, social, and governance initiatives and controls about $68 trillion in assets.

For example, members of Climate Action 100+ are required to ask the companies they work with to “take necessary action on climate change” by “halving emissions by 2030 and delivering net zero GHG emissions by 2050, in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement to pursue efforts to limit warming to 1.5°C.”

One document obtained by the committee said that Climate Action 100+ needed to “show that engagement can have teeth—and that investors are willing to escalate pressure against companies that refuse to act.”

The report said that this push for decarbonization would raises costs of fossil fuel, aviation, and farming.

Another one of the leftist groups discussed in the report is Ceres, an environmental nonprofit that helped co-found Climate Action 100+.

Ceres says that it is leading a “coordinated push to harness the extraordinary power of financial system leaders to accelerate the transition of the global economy to net-zero by steering massive flows of capital . . . away from investments that lock in greenhouse gas emissions.

The committee said that Ceres has so far refused to respond to its requests for access to its Investor Portal, which it uses to organize “engagements” with shareholders and corporations.

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“Despite the centrality of the Ceres Investor Portal to the climate cartel’s operations and possible antitrust violations, and its obvious responsiveness to the categories of information demanded by the Committee’s subpoena, Ceres has refused to provide the Committee with meaningful access to these materials,” the report said, adding that all legal operations remain on the table.

The report also highlighted the work of the California Public Employee’s Retirement System through proxy voting and other means to push for policies in accordance with Climate Action 100+ and Ceres.

The release of the report comes as Republican lawmakers have been scrutinizing the connections between climate activists and financial asset manager giants like BlackRock and Vanguard. Earlier this year, BlackRock, JPMorgan, and State Street all announced that they would be pulling back from their participation in Climate Action 100+, pulling about $14 trillion in investments.

Neither Climate Action 100+ or Ceres immediately responded to requests for comment.

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