Larry Fink on how to invest in clean energy without saying climate

Annual shareholder's letter a far cry from the call to battle of 2020.

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Five years after calling shareholders to battle with the cry that “climate risk is investment risk,” BlackRock BLK 0.00%↑ founder Larry Fink didn’t even mention climate change in his annual shareholders’ letter this week.

But he still found a way in this tense, reckless Trump war on climate to tout the benefits of clean energy and decarbonization. Using China as an example of an economy moving toward energy transition and citing its popular BYD electric vehicle revolution, Fink focused on clean energy as part of an “energy pragmatism” that is needed to drive surging global power needs.

Even as BlackRock’s own megadeal to buy two ports in Panama founders on the geopolitical rocks of the China-U.S. trade relationship, Fink pitched more infrastructure deals such as ports, electric grids and data centers to help drive energy demand and insisted that private markets be more open to public investors.