Being kicked out of the index + sex scandal attack, Musk started a war with ESG!

A dozen tweets and one thing in a day is dense even for Musk, who pursues "Twitter to govern the enterprise".

What infuriated Musk was the removal of Tesla, Inc. from the S & P 500ESG. ESG is a kind of investment concept and enterprise evaluation standard that pays attention to enterprise environment, society and governance performance rather than financial performance.

Overnight, Tesla, Inc. 's share price fell nearly 7%, which foreign media analysts said was related to Tesla, Inc. 's removal of the impact of the S & P 500ESG index.

"ESG is a hoax" is one of Musk's "award acceptance speeches" on Twitter. Starting at around 12:00 local time on Wednesday, Musk posted more than a dozen tweets (including related retweets) in 24 hours, almost every hour except sleep, from day to night, from night to day.

At first, Musk's anger was directed at ESG, and he appeared to be angry with Tesla, Inc.: "Tesla, Inc. is clearly the company that makes the greatest contribution to the environment!"

But then Musk's anger spread to politics, citing pictures satirizing ESG pandering to leftists and saying he had always voted for Democrats because "they are (mainly) well-intentioned parties", but now he has changed his mind: "they have become separatist and hateful. I can no longer support them. I will vote for the Republican Party."

Perhaps as a sign of sincerity, Musk topped the tweet for hours.

In fact, there are signs of a change in Musk's political position. In December last year, Musk chose to relocate Tesla, Inc. headquarters, moving from California to Texas, the basic Democratic market.

Musk, aware of the weight of the comments, predicted on Twitter: "the political attacks on me will escalate sharply in the coming months."

After Musk tapped on the keyboard for a day, the media Insider published a report that Musk sexually harassed a stewardess in 2016, not only exposing his genitals, but also demanding "more service".

Musk responded, calling the report "politically motivated" and did not elaborate on why.

Musk now has a lot of buff superimposed on him: not only is he the richest man in the new world, he also has more than 90 million followers on Twitter, and what's more, he seems likely to buy the vital social media directly recently, and his political statements are enough to attract the attention of US politicians.

The "culprit" ESG evaluation system of all this, along with Musk's Twitter offensive, has become the focus of attention and controversy all over the world.

A

There is actually an explanation for Tesla, Inc. 's removal of the S & P 500ESG. Margaret Dorn, senior director of S & P Dow and head of ESG index, wrote on its website on May 17 that Tesla, Inc. 's exposure to poor working conditions and racial discrimination at its Fremont, California plant, the handling of self-driving casualty investigations, and the lack of a low-carbon strategy and a code of business conduct were not good for it.

Although Tesla, Inc. has played a role in phasing out fuel vehicles, Dorne believes that from a broader ESG perspective, it has lagged behind its peers.

This is clearly not acceptable to Musk.

This is not the first time Musk has fired at ESG. Before that, Musk has publicly criticized the ESG rating as "false" and "meaningless", even calling it "the embodiment of the devil".

The concept of ESG originated from socially responsible investment, and its concept was formally put forward by the United Nations Environment Programme in 2004. It adds another ruler to the "performance" evaluation criterion of enterprises: the "excellence" of an enterprise should not only make money, but also have a positive effect on the earth and society.

Nowadays, ESG has become an important concept of management and investment, and it is the mainstream international non-financial disclosure system of enterprises. At present, the number of global ESG rating agencies has exceeded 600. stock exchanges and regulators in many countries have also formulated relevant policies to require listed companies to disclose ESG-related information voluntarily or compulsorily.

In the eyes of more and more investors, ESG is an important reference for the medium-and long-term performance of an enterprise. It is not hard to understand why Tesla, Inc. 's fall on Wednesday was attributed to the removal of the S & P 500ESG index.

But Musk is critical of ESG, not because he doesn't approve of linking the improvement of the world to the evaluation of companies-after all, it's one of his strengths, but he doesn't like the existing ESG evaluation system.

In the "2021 influence report" released by Tesla, Inc. in early May, cue began with an "old friend" ESG: "the current ESG rating method is fundamentally flawed."

Tesla, Inc. also began to talk about this in the report: "some people may think that the higher the percentage of electric vehicles sold by a carmaker in total sales, the better its ESG score." However, this is not the case. As long as the company produces a large number of gas-guzzling cars while slightly reducing greenhouse gas emissions, its ESG rating is likely to rise. "

The report points out that the emissions of most vehicles account for 80%, 90% of the total vehicle emissions, but the main consideration in rating is the production link.

Like Musk's dissatisfaction in his tweet, it is against common sense that a world-famous electric car brand has been removed from the S & P 500ESG and not even ranked in the rankings, while Exxon (Exxon Mobil Corp, the global oil and gas giant) ranks among the top 10 in the world.

The report points out that the current ESG report focuses on measuring the dollar value of risk / return rather than measuring the scope of its positive impact on the world.

Judging from the remarks made in Musk's and Tesla, Inc. 's reports in the past, they did not completely negate ESG, but he felt that the current ESG index system should be ignored and "ineffective". As said in the report, Musk advocated that the ESG index should reflect a basic question: does the development of this company have a positive impact on the world?

B

Such an attitude actually reflects Musk's previous Democratic position, at this time not only spraying the ESG system, but also "rising" to change political positions to support the Republican Party, which is not just a hot-headed impulse.

The world must remember how Trump withdrew from the Paris Agreement without a word of disagreement. Issues such as social responsibility, climate issues and environmental protection have always been major issues in the eyes of Democrats, while Republicans have other concerns.

According to a Pew research center poll last year, only about 10% of people on the right think climate change is a top priority, while the proportion on the left is about 49%.

During the campaign, Biden shouted the slogan of achieving net zero emissions by 2025, promising to ask companies to provide more details about environmental risks and greenhouse gas emissions.

Immediately after taking office, Biden brought the United States back to the Paris Agreement and passed a $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill (including infrastructure that can effectively withstand the effects of climate change).

The wider attention to the ESG issue after the COVID-19 epidemic, coupled with the Biden administration's supportive policy on the ESG issue, has made ESG investment strong. Global ESG fund inflows reached a record $649 billion by the end of November, up from 2020 and 2019 and account for 10 per cent of global fund assets, according to Refinitiv Lipper.

The growing status of the ESG under the Democratic Party has even led the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to consider regulating corporate climate-related disclosures.

Now that the mid-term elections in the United States are approaching, the issue of ESG is in debate: should companies be forced to disclose information about ESG? Can ESG indicators be on an equal footing with financial indicators in terms of regulations?

On May 10th, former US Vice President Mike Pence said bluntly at a meeting that he wanted to control ESG. Utah's state treasurer has also said that the ESG index believes too much in "left-wing" beliefs, blurring the line between subjective and objective financial judgment.

If Republicans take control of the House of Representatives in the mid-term elections, it is possible to take action to curb ESG-related regulations.

In such a dispute, Musk announced a high-profile change of political stance, and its power can be imagined.

After Musk blasted ESG and said he would switch to the Republican Party, Insider published a report that SpaceX had paid a stewardess $250000 to settle sexual harassment charges against Musk in 2018.

The stewardess, who works as a flight attendant at SpaceX, charged Musk with exposing her private parts, stroking her leg without consent and giving a horse in exchange for a "massage", Insider reported.

Musk's response came quickly, first telling the media that the report was "politically motivated" but did not explain too much.

As of press time, Musk tweeted at 1 a.m. local time that "attacks on me should be made from a political point of view, this is their standard (despicable) script, but nothing can stop me from fighting for a better future and your right to freedom of speech."

This coincides with the warning issued by Musk the day before after announcing a change of political stance: "the political attacks on me will increase sharply in the coming months."

Musk then tried to defuse the scandal with humor, saying that the term "Elongate" should be used to refer to his own scandal. Its fans also playfully interact with each other: Elon Gate, leading to Mars.

It doesn't matter whether he really shifted the camp or not, and it doesn't matter who he voted for. Behind a dozen tweets like a "model worker" is Musk's determination to curb his further promotion and influence when the existing ESG system is against him.

It is hard to say whether Musk really did not foresee and anticipate the political attack against himself, or whether the scandal was cleverly put into the basket of ESG and extreme left-wing issues by Musk, but Musk undoubtedly once again occupied the highlands of public opinion.