Thread by @SeanPeche

1/
I looked up Equity #ETFs with #ESG in their description using the Bloomberg function, "ETF"

$334bn in total AUM

Wow, investors are hungry for this

so took a “deep dive” into the largest - $22bn iShares ESG Aware MSCI USA

2/
“composed of U.S. companies that have positive environmental, social & governance characteristics as identified by the index provider”

“.. that applies the following business involvement screens:

civilian firearms, controversial weapons, tobacco, thermal coal and oil sands”

3/
Seems clear

First up, Tobacco

WHO says it kills 8m / yr

And I detest smoking – this is easy

I also hate guns, will never own one

But how many people do firearms kill?

Amnesty Intl, - 1.4m firearm-related deaths globally between 2012 & 2016

4/
So is ~350k of annual deaths the cutoff?

Because how many does Alcohol kill?

WHO – 3m

Any alcohol firms in this ETF?

I know the large ones (ABI, Diageo) are European

Scroll down, spot Brown-Forman & Molson Coors

But I do see lots of retailers & they sell alcohol,

5/
maybe some sell guns

I wonder where you draw the line?

But while scrolling I notice Coca-Cola, Pepsi, McDonald's, Kellogg & Starbucks all in the top 100

Hang on, a Grande Starbucks Caramel Brulee Latte with whole milk is 390 calories

That’s flatulent cows + sugar

6/
What’s obesity’s hit rate?

2.8m

Now I’m confused

So, guns at 350k p/a is bad

but fast food, sugary drinks & alcohol at 5.8m is fine?

Why, because they kill you slowly, whereas guns kill you fast?

And I see McDonald's, so what about the meat & fish they sell,

7/
haven't they seen #cowspiracy & #Seaspiracy?

It can’t be Social because I spotted Nike on the list & Amazon isn’t unionised

So it must be Environmental

Back to the top

Apple is the largest holding so I looked up their Environmental Progress Report and see they generated

8/
22.6MMT (million metric tons) of CO2 equivalent per year

Huh, I thought California was sunny - solar?

Of course, this also excludes all the power used by their devices once sold

so how does that differ from the fuel we burn, once sold by the oil majors?

Microsoft #2

9/
Fuzzy chart but looks like 11 MMT

And there’s the device user issue again

Amazon #3

But don’t they own~ 80 aircraft + 30k trucks + 20k trailers?

61MMT

What?

61 million metric tons of CO2

From the 3rd largest holding in the World’s largest ESG Aware fund

10/
Imagine an Unaware fund!

Clearly, market-cap-weighted, not ESG friendly scale weighted…

How much does an airline emit?

Delta in 2019 (pre covid)

40MMT

What position are they in the ETF?

Can’t find them

But I do see UPS 38 MMT

Oh there’s ExxonMobil 120MMT

Enough!

11/
I see no logic to this whatsoever so I’m just going to say it:

I think this ETF ESG investing is complete & utter nonsense

A dishonest sales idea trying to capitalise on our climate emergency

Worse -people now think they’ve “done their bit” because they’re in an “ESG fund”

12/

You haven’t

Help the planet properly & stop wasting your time with this rubbish

#investing