Climate change has become a defining factor in companies long-term prospects I believe we are on the edge of a fundamental reshaping of finance, said Larry Fink, the CEO of BlackRock, the worlds biggest money manager. 
Finks letter to shareholders generated a great deal of attention and positive comment. Climate change, we were told, is going to be put at the heart of companys strategy. 
It sounds good and it ought to matter. BlackRock oversees assets worth $7tn (£5.4tn). With that comes the power to make its voice heard. 
Download the new Independent Premium app
Sharing the full story, not just the headlines
Download now
But, to date, BlackRocks hasnt been doing that. 
I looked at an analysis on how asset managers use their votes, which was conducted by ShareAction, the responsible investment campaign group. 
left
Created with Sketch.
right
Created with Sketch.
Shape
Created with Sketch.
Business news: In pictures
1/12 Future product placement will be ‘tailored to individual viewers’
Marketing executives say that product placement in films and televison shows on streaming services such as Netflix may be tailored to individuals in future. For instance, if data shows that a viewer is a fan of pepsi, a billboard in the background of a shot would host an advert for pepsi, while for a viewer known to have different tastes it could be for Coca-Cola
2/12 Corbyn wishes Amazon a happy birthday
In a card sent to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos on the company’s 25th birthday, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn writes: “You owe the British people millions in taxes that pay for the public services that we all rely on. Please pay your fair share”
3/12 No deal, no tariffs
The government has announced that it would slash almost all tariffs in the event of a no-deal Brexit. Notable exceptions include cars and meat, which will see tariffs in place to protect British farmers
4/12 Fingerprint payment
NatWest is trialling a new bank card that will allow people to touch their hand to the card when paying rather than typing in a PIN number. The card will work by recognising the user’s fingerprint
5/12 Mahabis bust
High-end slipper retailer Mahabis has gone into administration. 2 Jan 2019
6/12 Costa Cola
Coca-Cola has paid £3.9bn for Costa Coffee. A cafe chain is a new venture for the global soft drinks giant
7/12 RIP Payday Loans
A funeral procession for payday loans was held in London on September 2. The future of pay day lenders is in doubt after Wonga, Britain’s biggest, went into administration on August 30
8/12 Musk irks investors and directors
Elon Musk has concluded that Tesla will remain public. Investors and company directors were angry at Musk for tweeting unexpectedly that he was considering taking Tesla private and share prices had taken a tumble in the following weeks
9/12 Jaguar warning
Iconic British car maker Jaguar Land Rover warned on July 5, 2018 that a “bad” Brexit deal could jeopardise planned investment of more than $100 billion, upping corporate pressure as the government heads into crucial talks
10/12 Spotif-IPO
Spotify traded publically for the first time on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday. However, the company isn’t issuing shares, but rather, shares held by Spotify’s private investors will be sold
11/12 French blue passports
The deadline to award a contract to make blue British passports after Brexit has been extended by two weeks following a request by bidder De La Rue. The move comes after anger at the announcement British passports would be produced by Franco-Dutch firm Gemalto when De La Rues contract ends in July.
The British firm said Gemalto was chosen only because it undercut the competition, but the UK company also admitted that it was not the cheapest choice in the tendering process.
12/12 Beast from the east economic impact
The Beast from the East wiped £4m off of Flybes revenues due to flight cancellations, airport closures and delays, according to the budget airlines estimates. Flybe said it cancelled 994 flights in the three months to 31 March, compared to 372 in the same period last year.
1/12 Future product placement will be ‘tailored to individual viewers’
Marketing executives say that product placement in films and televison shows on streaming services such as Netflix may be tailored to individuals in future. For instance, if data shows that a viewer is a fan of pepsi, a billboard in the background of a shot would host an advert for pepsi, while for a viewer known to have different tastes it could be for Coca-Cola
2/12 Corbyn wishes Amazon a happy birthday
In a card sent to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos on the company’s 25th birthday, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn writes: “You owe the British people millions in taxes that pay for the public services that we all rely on. Please pay your fair share”
3/12 No deal, no tariffs
The government has announced that it would slash almost all tariffs in the event of a no-deal Brexit. Notable exceptions include cars and meat, which will see tariffs in place to protect British farmers
4/12 Fingerprint payment
NatWest is trialling a new bank card that will allow people to touch their hand to the card when paying rather than typing in a PIN number. The card will work by recognising the user’s fingerprint
5/12 Mahabis bust
High-end slipper retailer Mahabis has gone into administration. 2 Jan 2019
6/12 Costa Cola
Coca-Cola has paid £3.9bn for Costa Coffee. A cafe chain is a new venture for the global soft drinks giant
7/12 RIP Payday Loans
A funeral procession for payday loans was held in London on September 2. The future of pay day lenders is in doubt after Wonga, Britain’s biggest, went into administration on August 30
8/12 Musk irks investors and directors
Elon Musk has concluded that Tesla will remain public. Investors and company directors were angry at Musk for tweeting unexpectedly that he was considering taking Tesla private and share prices had taken a tumble in the following weeks
9/12 Jaguar warning
Iconic British car maker Jaguar Land Rover warned on July 5, 2018 that a “bad” Brexit deal could jeopardise planned investment of more than $100 billion, upping corporate pressure as the government heads into crucial talks
10/12 Spotif-IPO
Spotify traded publically for the first time on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday. However, the company isn’t issuing shares, but rather, shares held by Spotify’s private investors will be sold
11/12 French blue passports
The deadline to award a contract to make blue British passports after Brexit has been extended by two weeks following a request by bidder De La Rue. The move comes after anger at the announcement British passports would be produced by Franco-Dutch firm Gemalto when De La Rues contract ends in July.
The British firm said Gemalto was chosen only because it undercut the competition, but the UK company also admitted that it was not the cheapest choice in the tendering process.
12/12 Beast from the east economic impact
The Beast from the East wiped £4m off of Flybes revenues due to flight cancellations, airport closures and delays, according to the budget airlines estimates. Flybe said it cancelled 994 flights in the three months to 31 March, compared to 372 in the same period last year.
It looked at the votes cast by 57 of the worlds biggest asset managers on a total of 65 proposals designed to speed up corporate action on climate change at big companies. The motions covered emissions reduction targets, climate reporting, governance and corporate lobbying.
All ten of the least supportive voters came from the US including, drum roll please, BlackRock.
A different study, this time by InfluenceMap, another non profit, looked at a variety of different metrics with a view to giving each of the worlds leading fund managers a climate related engagement score. 
BlackRock fared slightly better here. It managed a C plus on an A to D scale. Thats better than some of its US peers, but still nothing to write home about. 
Then theres what Majority Action, an American non profit that empowers shareholders to hold corporations accountable to high standards of corporate governance, social responsibility, and long-term value creation, had to say in its report on voting behaviour. 
BlackRock and Vanguard (another big US manager) voted for 99 per cent of of U.S. large capitalization energy and utility company-proposed directors and 100 per cent of their say on pay proposals. 
BlackRock and Vanguard not only voted with management more often than most of their asset manager peers; they were also more likely to support management at these fossil fuel intensive companies than they did across U.S. equities overall.
Taken together, the reports are damning. 
On the flip side, European fund managers come out rather better. Seven out of the top ten identified by ShareAction were European, including all of the top five. 
Read more
In first place was Switzerlands UBS Asset Management, followed by Germanys Allianz Global Investors. We then have a trio of UK firms: Aviva Investors in third with Legal & General Investment Management and HSBC Asset Management tied for fourth.
How about InfluenceMap and its grades? L&G, Aviva, UBS and BNP Paribas all got As. 
Why is this important? 
Most firms that market funds to retail investors have some form of ethical or environmental, social & governance (ESG) screened product to offer because theyre popular and can therefore prove profitable. 
But if the rest of a managers money is used to support and enable the backward looking bosses of carbon emitters and polluters then it doesnt really count for much. 
If youre an ethically minded investor, its not just the ethical fund and what it does that you need to take into account. Its the manager and how they use all of the money they manage.
This is not intended as a hagiography. Even the managers that do back climate resolutions could stand to do more. But youre still better off picking one of those, with a proven record of using their voting clout to achieve positive change, than you are a manager trading in pretty words and promises.