$334bn in total AUM
Wow, investors are hungry for this so took a “deep dive” into the largest – $22bn iShares ESG Aware MSCI USA “composed of U.S. companies that have positive environmental, social & governance characteristics as identified by the index provider”
“.. that applies the following business involvement screens:
civilian firearms, controversial weapons, tobacco, thermal coal and oil sands”
Seems clear
First up, Tobacco
WHO says it kills 8m / yr
And I detest smoking – this is easy
I also hate guns, will never own one
But how many people do firearms kill?
Amnesty Intl, – 1.4m firearm-related deaths globally between 2012 & 2016
So is ~350k of annual deaths the cutoff?
Because how many does Alcohol kill?
WHO – 3m
Any alcohol firms in this ETF?
I know the large ones (ABI, Diageo) are European
Scroll down, spot Brown-Forman & Molson Coors
But I do see lots of retailers & they sell alcohol, maybe some sell guns
I wonder where you draw the line?
But while scrolling I notice Coca-Cola, Pepsi, McDonald’s, Kellogg & Starbucks all in the top 100
Hang on, a Grande Starbucks Caramel Brulee Latte with whole milk is 390 calories
That’s flatulent cows + sugar
What’s obesity’s hit rate?
2.8m
Now I’m confused
So, guns at 350k p/a is bad
but fast food, sugary drinks & alcohol at 5.8m is fine?
Why, because they kill you slowly, whereas guns kill you fast?
And I see McDonald’s, so what about the meat & fish they sell, haven’t they seen Cowspiracy?
It can’t be Social because I spotted Nike on the list & Amazon isn’t unionised
So it must be Environmental
Back to the top
Apple is the largest holding so I looked up their Environmental Progress Report and see they generated
22.6MMT (million metric tons) of CO2 equivalent per year
Huh, I thought California was sunny, no solar?
Of course, this also excludes all the power used by their devices once sold
so how does that differ from the fuel we burn, once sold by the oil majors?
Microsoft #2
Fuzzy chart but looks like 11 MMT
And there’s the device user issue again
Amazon #3
But don’t they own~ 80 aircraft + 30k trucks + 20k trailers?
61MMT
What?
61 million metric tons of CO2
From the 3rd largest holding in the World’s largest ESG Aware fund
Imagine an Unaware fund!
Clearly, market-cap-weighted, not ESG friendly scale weighted…
How much does an airline emit?
Delta in 2019 (pre covid)
40MMT
What position are they in the ETF?
Can’t find them
But I do see UPS 38 MMT
Oh there’s ExxonMobil 120MMT
Enough!
I see no logic to this whatsoever so I’m just going to say it:
I think this ETF ESG investing is complete & utter nonsense
A dishonest sales idea trying to capitalise on our climate emergency
And worse, people now think they’ve “done their bit” because they’re in an “ESG fund”
You haven’t
Help the planet properly & stop wasting your time with this rubbish