Recent ESG Problems Include Fund Underperformance And Data Inconsistency—And How The US And Europe Differ In Approach

Some fractures are appearing in global ESG investment, with market size estimated by Bloomberg Intelligence to hit $50 trillion in 2025. As reference, $50 trillion represents nearly a threefold increase from AUM levels of 2014.

Lagging investment performance is giving some investors pause. A recent $4 billion withdrawal from ESGU
ESGU
, Blackrock’s largest ESG-labeled exchange-traded fund, and a standard for the sustainable investing industry, raised eyebrows. Blackrock has been silent about the source of withdrawal, and it is not clear that it may not be from rebalancing from some of their own models.