Not long ago, ESG — shorthand for environmental, social, and governance investing — was the darling of global finance.
From pension funds to private equity, investors poured money into companies promising climate action, social responsibility, and better corporate governance — and between 1995 and 2018, sustainable investments in the U.S. grew more than 18-fold, eventually accounting for one in every four dollars of the country’s $46.6 trillion in assets.
But over the last several years, support for ESG began to wane. In 2022, leading conservative politicians accused corporations of investing in “woke capital” through ESG, with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis proposing sweeping legislation to shutter “ideological corporate power.”
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About the author
Elissa Miolene
Elissa Miolene reports on USAID and the U.S. government at Devex. She previously covered education at The San Jose Mercury News, and has written for outlets like The Wall Street Journal, San Francisco Chronicle, Washingtonian magazine, among others. Before shifting to journalism, Elissa led communications for humanitarian agencies in the United States, East Africa, and South Asia.
