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BlackRock, UBS, and Legal & General are included in the group of investment firms providing over sixty actively managed environmental, social, and governance portfolios that hold stakes in BP, even though the company has scaled back its commitment to renewable energy to refocus on hydrocarbon resources.
An examination by the FT, drawing upon statistics from the data supplier, Morningstar Direct, revealed that upwards of 110 actively and passively managed ESG portfolios had investments in BP by the end of 2025.
Early in the year, BP opted for a strategic “recalibration” following remarks by its erstwhile chief executive, Murray Auchincloss, who stated it had progressed “excessively quickly” with its environmental initiative, deeming it “ill-conceived”. Its projected 40 percent decrease in petroleum and natural gas output by 2030 was curtailed to a 25 percent reduction.
Over sixty portfolios still retaining BP shares were designated as actively overseen by Morningstar, indicating that the portfolio did not merely mirror a foundational market index. Prominently featured in this assessment were ESG portfolios provided by Legal & General.
Upon examining the information, Kenneth Lamont, who serves as the principal of manager research at Morningstar, remarked: “One would anticipate that if an active fund manager has not divested their holdings, a sound justification for retaining them should exist.”
L&G stated that it “administers investment portfolios with diverse sustainability aims”. It maintained its commitment to “productively collaborate with BP and various other corporations regarding the fiscal significance” of the shift to sustainable energy.
Among the top ten in the assessment holding BP shares, determined by the proportion of the portfolio’s total assets, were Royal London, Swiss Canto, BlackRock, Oddo, Banca Popolare, and UBS.
Royal London communicated that its offerings possessed “defined, collective climate objectives”, yet were also directed to allocate approximately 90 percent of their capital to their benchmark index — rendering it challenging to bypass the petroleum and natural gas industry in economies like the UK, where energy corporations constitute a substantial element.
BlackRock stated that its ACS UK ESG Insights Equity fund additionally sought to closely mirror the FTSE All-Share Net index, incorporating “sustainability-focused adjustments”. Its portfolio prospectus, they affirmed, clearly outlined the product’s operational mechanisms.
Swiss Canto conveyed that its “methodology prioritises facilitating the shift towards an economy with reduced carbon emissions, instead of enacting comprehensive prohibitions”.
Banca Popolare’s Popso (Suisse) European Equity Dividend fund indicated it kept its BP holdings even after its environmental, social, and governance assessment was lowered by the rating agency MSCI in the previous year, but was “diligently observing any subsequent alterations to the MSCI rating”.
UBS chose not to provide a statement. Oddo provided no reply.
Conversely, investment firms that had divested BP stakes from their ESG portfolios comprised Axa Investment Managers, currently a division of BNP Paribas. Prior to this, it maintained three portfolios with notable involvement.
The Morningstar data compilation additionally indicated that roughly 200 portfolios continued to hold Shell, a company that did not alter its strategy as extensively as BP but did dilute its guidelines in early 2024 following Wael Sawan’s assumption of the chief executive role.
Paul Schreiber, a senior policy consultant at the environmental non-profit Reclaim Finance, stated that the Morningstar information “unquestionably strengthens worries regarding greenwashing” through portraying offerings as more environmentally sound than their reality. He advocated for more stringent oversight concerning ESG assertions.
“The majority of individuals do not anticipate that portfolios self-identifying as ESG or environmentally friendly would have exposure to corporations that enlarge fossil fuel operations,” he stated. “A reversal of policy, such as BP’s, demonstrates that these portfolios cannot credibly assert their endorsement of companies genuinely committed to transitioning.”
Prior to its forthcoming yearly assembly, BP has put forward a proposal to annul two environmentally focused resolutions approved by shareholders in 2015 and 2019, among them one that requested the company to reveal how its operational approach aligned with the Paris Agreement on climate change.
Furthermore, it has omitted a shareholder proposal from the Dutch activist collective Follow This and sixteen institutional financiers, advocating for BP to unveil tactics for sustaining financial viability should the demand for fossil fuels diminish.
The EU is contemplating prohibiting fossil fuel developers from certain portfolios labeled as sustainable, however, over 130 environmental groups have requested the inclusion of all ESG funds in this prohibition. “Considering the profoundly detrimental consequences of fossil fuel expansion . . . it is challenging to comprehend how any portfolio asserting an environmental benefit could vindicate such an investment,” they remarked.
Investment managers have encountered contradictory demands from both the US and the EU concerning ESG methodologies. Within the US, states governed by Republicans have initiated legal proceedings, alleging that certain managers conspired to withhold funding from the fossil fuel industry.
In advocacy for these portfolios, Dominic Rowles, who leads ESG at Hargreaves Lansdown, the United Kingdom’s foremost retail investment platform, contended that were environmentally conscious investors to divest from the petroleum and natural gas industry, the equities might then be acquired by parties with diminished regard for such principles.
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