https://www.fnlondon.com/articles/elon-musk-blasts-esg-after-dws-office-raids-over-greenwashing-allegations-20220601
Elon Musk blasts ESG after DWS office raids over greenwashing allegations
The Tesla boss tweeted in response to raids on Deutsche Bank and DWS over greenwashing allegations
Tesla chief executive Elon Musk slammed the ESG industry again following a raid on asset manager DWS’ Frankfurt offices over greenwashing allegations.
“I have yet to see an ESG list that isn’t fraudulent”, Musk tweeted on 1 June.
His tweet — the second stab at ESG in two weeks — was in response to news of a 31 May raid on the Frankfurt offices of Deutsche Bank and DWS. Musk cited a Fortune article which noted “evidence that could support allegations of prospectus fraud”.
The Frankfurt offices of Deutsche Bank AG and its asset management subsidiary DWS Group were searched by authorities on 31 May over allegations of greenwashing.
DWS boss Asoka Woehrmann resigned on 1 June following the raids.
Around 50 agents of the city’s public prosecutor’s office, alongside German market regulator BaFin and the Federal Criminal Police Office, had been deployed on the morning of 31 May, a spokesperson for Frankfurt prosecutor's office said.
“The measures of the public prosecutors are directed against unknown people in connection with greenwashing allegations against DWS,” a spokesperson for the German lender said.
The raid comes amid growing questions over the $3tn ESG industry. While efforts around environmental, social and governance matters, or ESG, are intended to capture clear data and financial reporting on the impacts of climate change, critics are arguing that the industry is instead flooded with opaque metrics and self-serving think-tanks.
The debate took a dramatic turn when HSBC suspended its responsible investment head Stuart Kirk over remarks that criticised central bankers and policymakers for hamming up climate change risks by trying to “out-hyperbole the next guy”.
But many, including Musk, have since backed the call for more honest views about ESG’s nature and purpose.
Tariq Fancy, BlackRock’s former sustainable investing CIO, was one of the first to put his head above the parapet by saying Kirk’s comments had done the industry “a service” by “infusing a dose of honesty into a debate that is otherwise leading us nowhere”.
Mark Dampier, Hargreaves Lansdown’s former research director, has called out the entire ESG sector.
“Climate change has become a trillion-pound industry spawning more hangers-on, think-tanks, green publications and pressure groups than surely any other industry today. All have a vested interest in keeping the status quo, so they strongly dislike people raining on their parade,” he wrote for Financial News.
Musk previously said on Twitter that “ESG is a scam” that had been “weaponised by phoney social justice warriors” after Tesla was kicked off the S&P ESG Index.