How a BlackRock green fund went from launch to close in 29 months
Investing in the thesis of 100% renewable energy to power the country lost its appeal
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(Mark Hulbert, an author and longtime investment columnist, is the founder of the Hulbert Financial Digest; his Hulbert Ratings audits investment newsletter returns.)
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (Callaway Climate Insights) — Two weeks ago, BlackRock — the world’s largest asset manager — pulled the plug on a New Zealand green energy fund it had launched just two and a half years previously.
It’s not clear why this happened, since the explanations the firm has offered don’t add up to a fully coherent story.
The fund that BlackRock BLK 0.00%↑ launched in August 2023 was the New Zealand NetZero Investment Fund. One of its goals was to show the world that a country could become 100% reliant on renewable energy for its electricity generation. New Zealand was an obvious test case, since more than 80% of the country’s electricity already came from renewables.
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