(Recasts adding comments, background)
MILAN, June 3 (Reuters) - Last week's Dutch court decision
against Royal Dutch Shell is not the way to solve the
global decarbonisation issue and risks shifting the problem to
private firms, the head of the world's largest money manager
said on Thursday.
BlackRock CEO Larry Fink said the ruling that
requires Shell to deepen its planned greenhouse gas emission
cuts was an example of a general attitude that failed to address
the overall problem.
The ruling, which could trigger legal action against other
energy companies, is expected to force Shell to shed assets to
comply.
Shell said it was disappointed with the ruling and planned
to appeal.
"That (the ruling) doesn't change the global footprint,
that's not a solution," Fink told a conference on infrastructure
investing.
"We're doing a lot of greenwashing because we're not
changing the carbon footprint of the world. We may change the
carbon footprint of a company."
Fink said governments were not doing enough to ensure a
widespread push towards a carbon-neutral future, creating an
incentive for companies to offload their hydrocarbon businesses
and cause a "huge capital markets arbitrage".
"What I worry about is that we're going to put all pressure
on public (listed) companies and very little pressure on the
private side," he said.
"If we are really sincere about the world having a net zero
carbon (status) in 2050, we cannot move these parts of the
economy out of public entities into private hands. The net zero
world doesn't change, but the company looks better."
Fink said investors had to work with energy companies to
support their green transition and that BlackRock was engaging
with those in which it holds stakes.
"It's not running away from the current hydrocarbon
companies, it's working with them as they navigate the move
forward," Fink said.
BlackRock is the top investor in BP and last week
backed a shareholder resolution from activist group Follow This
asking the energy group to set deeper climate targets.
It has voiced support for energy transition strategies at
Total and Shell at recent AGMs.
(Reporting by Valentina Za; Additional reporting by Stephen
Jewkes; editing by Barbara Lewis)
BP (BP.)
