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* BlackRock targeted by Extinction Rebellion
* Police say 1,336 arrests since protests began
(Recasts with BlackRock)
By Guy Faulconbridge and Matthew Green
LONDON, Oct 14 (Reuters) - Climate change activists targeted
BlackRock, the world's biggest asset manager, in London
on Monday, demanding that the world's major financial
institutions stop funding what they describe as a looming
environmental catastrophe.
Extinction Rebellion, which promotes revolt against
established political, economic and social structures as a way
to publicise its dramatic climate message, is in the middle of
two weeks of civil disobedience in London.
Its activists thronged the financial heart of London on
Monday, blocking streets around locations such as the Bank of
England and BlackRock.
Activists glued themselves to the doors of BlackRock while
others staged a mock dinner party with rolled-up banknotes on
their plates, a Reuters reporter said.
"The City of London is a preeminent nexus of power in the
global system that is killing our world," said Carolina Rosa,
spokesperson for Extinction Rebellion.
There was no immediate comment from BlackRock.
Extinction Rebellion wants non-violent civil disobedience to
force governments to cut carbon emissions and avert a climate
crisis it says will bring starvation and social collapse.
Critics say the group is proposing what amounts to the
overthrow of capitalism without any clear idea of what would
replace it, and that the world's energy needs cannot be met
without fossil fuels.
Police reported more than 1,300 arrests so far.
CLIMATE FINANCE
Bank of England Governor Mark Carney has said the financial
sector must transform its management of climate risk, warning
that global warming will prompt reassessments of the value of
every single financial asset.
Emily Grossman, a British science broadcaster who attended
the protest outside BlackRock, said she hoped to highlight the
role of the financial sector in funding fossil fuel projects.
"This is criminal damage that they are doing to our lives
and to the lives of our children and it has to stop," Grossman
told Reuters
Major oil companies have approved $50 billion of projects
since last year that run contrary to the goals of the Paris
Agreement on climate change, according to an analysis published
last month by financial think-tank Carbon Tracker.
Index fund firms such as BlackRock now control half the U.S.
stock mutual fund market, giving the biggest funds enormous
power to influence decisions at the companies in which they
invest trillions of dollars.
But the leading U.S. index fund firms, BlackRock, Vanguard
Group and State Street Corp, rarely use that clout, a Reuters
analysis of their shareholder-voting records found this month.
Instead, they overwhelmingly support the decisions and pay
packages of executives at the companies in their portfolios,
including the worst performers, the analysis found.
(Writing by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Michael Holden and
Giles Elgood)
