Summary

This article argues that if ESG-driven climate stewardship ever achieves the scale necessary to have a real impact on global warming, it will hurt the poor. Legislative interventions to combat climate change are nearly always regressive, impacting those with the least, the most. ESG implemented at scale will inevitably replicate the regressive effects of these interventions on which all ESG carbon-reduction strategies are based. But, in contrast with congressional action, ESG solutions will not raise any revenue that could be used to offset ESG regressivity. ESG solutions may appear attractive because they seem to avoid the contentious politics of redistribution. But as the backlash against ESG vividly demonstrates, opponents will seize every opportunity to remind voters—especially middle- and low-income voters—of the job losses and increased energy costs that will follow ESG policies aimed at curbing carbon emissions.

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