Elevated energy prices likely will push consumers to consider green alternatives, Larry Fink said during a keynote session at MSCI's Capital for Climate Action Conference on Tuesday.
Some people blame the focus on ESG for high energy prices, which is "far from the truth," said Mr. Fink, chairman and CEO of BlackRock.
"There is real evidence of climate change, including higher temperatures, flooding and more severe storms," he said, noting that BlackRock is investing in new "unicorns working on new technologies that will accelerate the energy transition" to green solutions, which may take 20 to 30 years to come to fruition.
"It's not going to be a straight line," Mr. Fink said.
He stressed that BlackRock is not divesting from hydrocarbon companies during the clean-energy transition, which will be "very hard to manage"
Instead, BlackRock asks all of the companies in which the firm invests about how they are moving forward in the clean-energy transition.
"Three years ago, we got some backlash from companies about our questions," Mr. Fink said, noting that more companies now are more willing to provide the information BlackRock requests.
Mr. Fink said he was in Texas last week where he met with energy company CEOs to talk about the energy transition.
"The opportunity now is to educate, inform and work with energy companies to help them become more climate aware," Mr. Fink said.
He added that energy companies are seeing huge profits from high energy costs, which could be used to fund decarbonization within their companies.
Among some of the sectors that will be impacted by climate change are agriculture, air travel and other forms of transportation, steel and concrete production, and real estate.
"Blackrock's job is to understand the risks of climate change and its repercussions," Mr. Fink said, noting that BlackRock is able to do so on behalf of clients through Aladdin Climate, which analyzes climate risks. Aladdin is BlackRock's risk-management program.
BlackRock managed $9.57 trillion as of March 31.
