ESG Retirement Investing Proposal Tilts Toward Climate Goals (1)

The U.S. Labor Department proposed a rule Wednesday that would allow workplace retirement investors to focus on environmentally friendly funds and cash in on companies combating climate change.

DOL’s Employee Benefits Security Administration’s proposal would reverse former President Donald Trump’s regulations on the use of environmental, social, and corporate governance factors in retirement portfolios and fiduciaries’ use of proxy voting powers in favor of social or political goals. Trump’s rules limited investments and related decisions to “pecuniary” factors, sowing doubt among industry practitioners about whether climate change and environmental factors would qualify.

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