Financial Leader Pauses ESG Support With $7 Trillion Dollar Departure
Written by Matthew McKean, CEO and co-founder of Frontieras North America (LinkedIn)
The Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) initiative, promoted by the financial industry and adopted as a catch-all phrase for climate alarmists, suffered a significant blow last week.
Vanguard Group, Inc. announced that it is stepping back from its alliance to the Net Zero Asset Managers (NZAM) initiative (NZAM), an international group of asset managers committed to supporting the goal of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, in what ESG activists call an “anti-woke” moment.
The NZAM, launched in late 2020, manages more than $66 trillion in assets and was formed to encourage fund firms to reach net zero emission targets by 2050 and limit the rise in global temperatures. Vanguard’s withdrawal, which represents more than $7.1 trillion in assets from the NZAM provides a pathway for other managers within the NZAM to shed the guardrails of ESG. Vanguard is looking to provide clarity to its investors and have the freedom to invest in technology and innovation that is going to move us forward within the energy sector.
Within the many articles that I researched to try to better understand Vanguard’s decision, I got the sense that Vanguard was not abandoning its support of ESG’s mission, but rather embarking on a journey that allows it to embrace different technologies. Specific statements supporting this include:
“We have decided to withdraw from NZAM so that we can provide the clarity our investors desire about the role of index funds and about how we think about material risks, including climate-related risks,” Vanguard said in a statement on its website.
The statement continued, “Such industry initiatives can advance constructive dialogue, but sometimes they can also result in confusion about the views of individual investment firms. That has been the case in this instance, particularly regarding the applicability of net zero approaches to the broadly diversified index funds favored by many Vanguard investors.”
The industries over rotation towards renewables has contributed to the current energy crisis and proven unreliable when addressing the needs of a growing population. I believe Vanguard has seen the folly of the renewables market, and wants to be free to invest in innovative clean technologies to deliver available, abundant, and affordable energy. This approach allows Vanguard to narrate its own story and be objective when investing on behalf of its fund’s investors.
Frontieras North America represents the path forward. Frontieras’ clean technology processes coal down to its core elements to produce a wide gamut of energy yields. Specifically, Frontieras manipulates coal to produce a net-new purified solid carbon product known as FASCarbon™. FASCarbon is superior to current metallurgical coke used in the production of steel and unprocessed petroleum coke that is used in the production of cement. FASCarbon allows Frontieras to produce several other high value gas and intermediate liquid fuels including methane, naphtha, kerosene, jet fuel and diesel. Frontieras’ patented process also captures and repurposes key coal constituents– methane, hydrogen, and ammonia.
The introduction of Frontieras’ energy production is important to the safety and ongoing independence of the United States. The current energy crisis illustrates the impact and long-term impact that occurs when countries are reliant on other countries to supply necessary energy supplies.
Today, there is an estimated global reserve of coal that could be more than 1 trillion tons. Coal, an integral part of all industrialized nations, has been used for more than two centuries and is the foundation of today’s industrial nations, including the United States. Frontieras’ clean technology, Solid Carbon Fraction, combines innovation, technology, and collaboration to harness the hydrogen held within coal in energy production.
Frontieras anticipates that upon the commissioning of the first FASForm Plant in 2024, it will simultaneously kick off a rapid deployment of constructing FASForm plants across the globe. The validated yields produced by Frontieras’ FASForm’s processing of coal will have a net effect of improving the environment, rather than burdening energy providers with expensive attempts at marginal environmental improvements. Frontieras, understanding the impact of the FASForm plant holds the patents to the SCF technology on 5 continents and nine countries, including the U.S. and Canada. The impact of Frontieras FASForm will significantly reshape the energy sector and bring the use of coal back in favor.
Vanguard has a responsibility to its more than 30 million investors, 80% of whose assets are invested through index funds. Vanguard’s departure from the NZAM represents a significant validation to what Frontieras has been sharing for the past several years – “Renewable technology has proven unreliable when faced with addressing significant volume. Renewables have gained traction because of government subsidies and clean technology is the path forward.”
Frontieras’ zero waste approach embodies the essence of clean technology and represents American ingenuity. Specifically, Frontieras FASForm repurposes the captured volatiles, lowers the carbon footprint, and reduces current CO2 emissions when processing coal. Frontieras’ FASForm plant, set to be operational in 2024, will process 7,500 tons of coal per day, or roughly 2.7 million tons annually per facility. The 2.7 million processed tons represents .5% of the United States annual coal production of approximately 540 million tons annually. Frontieras FASForm plant provides the ability to extend the life of many existing coal plants by extending its yield productions while staying in compliance with changing regulatory demands. Specific benefits of FASForm on the energy market include:
Produces 2.3 barrels of liquid fuels from each ton of coal processed
Our closed-loop process produces over 20 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscfd) of hydrogen used to power our facility
Makes Frontieras the first plant powered by hydrogen in the United States.
Produces FASCarbon™, a virtually sulfur-free coal. Functions as a replacement carbon for steel manufacturing and coal-fired plants that burns hotter, cleaner, and with lower emissions than traditional coal processing.
Frontieras applauds Vanguard’s decision to step away from the NZAM fund. As the economy of the United States continues to suffer from high inflation, a fractured supply chain and a lack of affordable energy, we believe that more funds and managers will look for viable solutions beyond the ESG halo. The continued investment in clean technology by both the private markets and the world’s governments is a critical component to ensuring our energy independence and protecting our citizen’s safety.
To learn more about Frontieras North America and its patented energy solution or to invest in the company, please visit www.Frontieras.com.