{"id":32003,"date":"2023-11-13T12:00:49","date_gmt":"2023-11-13T12:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress-881230-3801000.cloudwaysapps.com\/?p=32003"},"modified":"2023-12-05T20:59:18","modified_gmt":"2023-12-05T20:59:18","slug":"stop-anti-esg-bills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/esgexplainer.org\/stop-anti-esg-bills\/","title":{"rendered":"Why should anti-ESG bills be stopped?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-group has-background is-vertical is-content-justification-stretch is-nowrap is-layout-flex wp-container-core-group-is-layout-1 wp-block-group-is-layout-flex\" style=\"background-color:#1b2c34\">\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading has-white-color has-text-color\"><strong><strong><strong>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Summary<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul style=\"background-color:#e7eff4\" class=\"has-background wp-block-list\">\n<li>Far right-lawmakers in some US states have been introducing \u201canti-ESG\u201d bills in a coordinated legislative effort that puts people\u2019s money at risk and hinders responsible investment practices.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Many of these bills focus on boosting business in the fossil fuel sector and industries like tobacco, firearms, and private prisons, and ban the state from contracting with any financial institutions that use ESG risk criteria.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>As of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pleiadesstrategy.com\/state-house-report-bill-tracker-republican-anti-esg-attacks-on-freedom-to-invest-responsibly-earns-business-labor-and-environmental-opposition\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">June 2023<\/a>, there had been 165 pieces of legislation introduced in 37 states. In 2023, 22 laws and 6 resolutions made it through the legislative process in 16 states.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Business groups, labor unions, local Chambers of Commerce, environmental advocacy organizations, and trade associations representing the financial sector are all fighting to stop anti-ESG bills from passing because the bills put workers\u2019 retirement funds and investors\u2019 ability to invest responsibly at risk.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong><strong><strong><strong><strong><strong><strong><strong><strong><strong>What are anti-ESG bills?<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Since 2022, a number of far-right lawmakers have been introducing what are commonly called \u201canti-ESG bills\u201d across many states in a coordinated legislative effort that is trying to prevent companies and investors from taking into account environmental, social, and governance risk factors when making their business and investment decisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Many of these bills seek to prohibit or severely limit investment managers\u2019 or even insurers\u2019 ability to consider climate- and other ESG-related risks. Other bills ban state pension funds and government agencies from doing business with banks, asset managers, and other companies that apply ESG criteria in their business or investment decisions. Many of these bills focus on boosting business with the fossil fuel sector and industries like tobacco, firearms, and private prisons, and ban the state from contracting with any financial institutions that use ESG risk criteria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong><strong><strong><strong><strong><strong><strong><strong><strong><strong>Which bills are passing?<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>To date, the vast majority of these bills have not been passed, as lawmakers have responded to concerns from pension funds, labor unions, local banking associations, local Chambers of Commerce, and environmental advocacy organizations that the new bills would cost their states&#8217; teachers and government workers billions in lost pension returns, cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars in extra municipal debt servicing costs, limit investors&#8217; ability to make sound decisions, and limit insurers\u2019 ability to provide coverage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pleiadesstrategy.com\/state-house-report-bill-tracker-republican-anti-esg-attacks-on-freedom-to-invest-responsibly-earns-business-labor-and-environmental-opposition\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">June 2023<\/a>, there had been 165 pieces of legislation introduced in 37 states. In 2023, 22 laws and 6 resolutions made it through the legislative process in 16 states. Most of them seek to ban state pension funds and government agencies from considering ESG factors, as is the case in Kansas and Florida, while states like Texas and Arizona are banning government agencies and pension funds from doing business with asset managers and other companies seen to limit business with fossil fuels or other industries or take ESG considerations into account.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong><strong><strong><strong><strong><strong><strong><strong><strong><strong><strong>Who is stopping the anti-ESG bills from passing?<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Business groups, labor unions, local Chambers of Commerce, environmental advocacy organizations, and trade associations representing the financial sector are fighting to stop anti-ESG bills from passing because the bills put workers\u2019 retirement funds and investors&#8217; ability to invest responsibly at risk. A report from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pleiadesstrategy.com\/state-house-report-bill-tracker-republican-anti-esg-attacks-on-freedom-to-invest-responsibly-earns-business-labor-and-environmental-opposition\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Pleiades<\/a> found that, \u201cfrom Florida to Ohio to Texas, labor unions fought to protect the financial security of public sector pension beneficiaries . . .&nbsp; They also reminded legislators of their members\u2019 right to invest their own money in ways that would benefit\u2013and not harm\u2013themselves and their communities.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"tmnf_excerpt\"><p>Since 2022, a number of far-right lawmakers have been introducing what are commonly called \u201canti-ESG bills\u201d across many states in a coordinated legislative effort that is trying to prevent companies and investors from taking into account environmental, social, and governance risk factors when making their business and investment decisions.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32666,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","slim_seo":{"title":"Why should anti-ESG bills be stopped?","description":"Protecting your financial security has nothing to do with banning ESG. Understand who is stopping anti-ESG bills from passing and why."},"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[83,90,80],"class_list":["post-32003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-anti-esg-efforts","tag-anti-esg","tag-corporate-interests","tag-retirement-investing"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/esgexplainer.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/stock-market-scaled.jpg",2560,1707,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/esgexplainer.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/stock-market-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/esgexplainer.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/stock-market-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/esgexplainer.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/stock-market-768x512.jpg",750,500,true],"large":["https:\/\/esgexplainer.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/stock-market-1024x683.jpg",750,500,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/esgexplainer.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/stock-market-1536x1024.jpg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/esgexplainer.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/stock-market-2048x1365.jpg",2048,1365,true],"knowbase_single":["https:\/\/esgexplainer.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/stock-market-790x450.jpg",790,450,true],"knowbase_blog":["https:\/\/esgexplainer.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/stock-market-310x310.jpg",310,310,true],"knowbase_tabs":["https:\/\/esgexplainer.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/stock-market-90x90.jpg",90,90,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Americas","author_link":"https:\/\/esgexplainer.org\/author\/americas\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Since 2022, a number of far-right lawmakers have been introducing what are commonly called \u201canti-ESG bills\u201d across many states in a coordinated legislative effort that is trying to prevent companies and investors from taking into account environmental, social, and governance risk factors when making their business and investment decisions.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/esgexplainer.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/esgexplainer.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/esgexplainer.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esgexplainer.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esgexplainer.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32003"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/esgexplainer.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32003\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32679,"href":"https:\/\/esgexplainer.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32003\/revisions\/32679"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esgexplainer.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/esgexplainer.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esgexplainer.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esgexplainer.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}