Given the urgency of the deforestation and human rights crises across the world, we find BlackRock’s response weak and at points misleading. BlackRock is once again deflecting urgent real-world concerns by stating what it can’t do, rather than considering what it can... BlackRock begins by attempting to shift responsibility onto its clients... [and] attempts to shift blame away from itself onto the structure of index funds... We certainly have yet to see evidence that any of BlackRock’s engagements had a measurable impact on the 2019 fire crisis in the Amazon, or Indonesia, or anywhere that companies under BlackRock’s stewardship are extracting profit at the cost of systemic and systematic abuses.

... With regard to the Amazon rainforest, Amazon Watch and Friends of the Earth US, along with Rainforest Action Network and Greenpeace US, have communicated to BlackRock via various channels about concrete ways it could engage with companies linked to forest destruction in the Amazon that would produce concrete results. Yet the best we get from BlackRock is boilerplate corporate PR-speak about why it can’t take any meaningful action. BlackRock’s refusal to communicate with us directly about specific actions makes its lack of seriousness painfully apparent.