BlackRock Struggles to Escape From the ESG Crossfire: Timeline

BlackRock Inc. and Chief Executive Officer Larry Fink spent the past several years championing investment strategies that focus on a now-ubiquitous and tormented acronym: ESG.

As a result, the asset-management behemoth has become a leading corporate voice in the environmental, social and governance movement.

While that has been a boon for BlackRock, linking its brand to a do-gooder ethos — and helping to generate fees on the hundreds of billions of assets it manages under its myriad “sustainable” funds — the backlash has been ferocious.

BlackRock’s push into ESG transformed the firm into a political punching bag for politicians of all stripes. On the right, Republicans like Florida ...