Is ESG dead, dying, or merely resting?

Trump's election victory has put increased focus on ESG. But is this sunlight terminal to the vampire squid? Or will it rise again? And are its critics trying to save it?

I have written a bit about ESG recently. We are barely more than hours away from Trump’s presidency, which, along with a Republican tendency towards scepticism, has been cited as the major reason for US financial institutions’ falling away from ESG groups like the Banking Alliance for Net Zero and others within the Global Financial Alliance for Net Zero umbrella, and similar organisations, of which there is a constellation.

Many are claiming that ESG is dead, and certainly, the withdrawal of US banks seems to put the centre of gravity of what was hoped would be a “global” movement firmly over the European continent. But it already was. ESG funds were already much more significantly based in Europe. Moreover, whereas there was radical growth in ESG funds until 2021, since then, big money seems to have had its eyes opened to the realities of necessity rather than fad.