Since 2015, Laurence D. Fink, founder and owner of BlackRock, one of the largest investment management companies in the world, publishes on his company's website, a letter addressed to the executive directors of companies and, on the other side, a letter to his clients.

On March 15, he published 2023's letter. But, this time, Laurence D. Fink addresses his annual letter to everybody indistinctly since, he declares, we are all affected by the same problems.

Fink points out that one of the most relevant tasks for a global investment firm is to identify all the short- and long-term risks of the global situation that could affect clients' investments. In the present: inflation, climate change, the banking crisis, the energy transition, geopolitics and its effects on society's confidence for a better future.

For this reason, it is necessary for leaders to show how to transform challenges into opportunities.

Climate change has shown that there are no territorial limits to stop it: natural phenomena such as fires, floods, droughts and tornadoes are becoming more frequent, and their impacts are evident. Climate change has been a risk factor for years. This has led many clients in betting on the energy transition and Black Rock to understand likely future trajectories of carbon emissions, how government policy will affect these trajectories, and what that means in terms of investment risks and opportunities.

The socio-environmental context influences the implementation of national and international public policies, investments, and, therefore, global market flows and geopolitics itself.

He also highlights the importance of corporate governance of companies, the structure that is decided to give it, and its ability to detect and respond to risk factors.

It is thus, then, that the need arises to develop a dynamic system in companies that allows the identification of environmental and social risk factors, to guide decision-making to prevent the negative impacts that these can cause. At the same time, this makes it possible to enhance the positive impacts. In this way, the sustainability and profitability of the company(s) can be ensured in the short, medium and long term.

Although Laurence D. Fink never directly mentions ESG criteria in his letter, it seems that he recognizes the relevance of environmental, social, and governance factors and supports their application for the early detection of risks and the possibility of transforming them into opportunities.