Financial institutions like to pay lip service to the climate catastrophe to burnish their public image. Doubtless, that’s what BlackRock chair Larry Fink, who oversees more money than the combined GDPs of Japan and Germany, had in mind when he declared four years ago that “climate risk is investment risk.”

At the time, the announcement shocked financial observers, who tend to wait for Fink’s annual letter to CEOs as if it’s a new set of commandments. They speculated that Fink’s new environmental focus could rewrite the rules of global finance, putting BlackRock’s more than $10 trillion in assets under management behind “greener” finance.

The ensuing years saw a concentrated pushback from investors, lawmakers, and businesses as firms with less-than-green credentials went into panic mode. Republican state lawmakers wrote letters, state governments began blacklisting BlackRock from public funds, and House leaders filed subpoenas, putting the asset manager on the back foot.