After years of headlines about the growing environmental, social, and governance—or ESG—movement in investing and corporate governance, it’s no surprise to see headlines about the burgeoning anti-ESG backlash. While criticism of ESG isn’t new, its opponents have recently begun to focus on legislative action aimed at stopping ESG in its tracks. A recent Reuters analysis identified 44 bills and new laws in 17 conservative-led states seeking to penalize financial institutions that have taken what they view as ESG-motivated stances on issues such as gun control, climate change, and diversity that they argue deprive legitimate businesses of capital. Conservative groups, like the American Legislative Exchange Council and Heritage Action for America, have supported these efforts with model legislation to protect beneficiaries of state pensions from “politically driven investment strategies” and ensure that states “only do business with companies that share an interest in the state’s profit, not the demise of it.”
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