Aside from appearing to align with Russia, why the American president is now very bad news for Environmental, Social and Governance
It is common knowledge that President Trump has brought about a reversal in the Environmental, Social and Governance sectors of the US, which in turn influences the strategic thinking in most of the largest companies in the world. DRB will now replace ESG at least until the next election cycle, and that is for many in the property technology space a very big deal.
As the Times put it recently, ‘”Drill Baby Drill!” The signature energy battle cry of Donald Trump has returned to center stage as he returns to the White House. His vision for American energy dominance is taking shape with the nomination of Chris Wright, a vocal advocate for fossil fuels, as his choice for Energy Secretary.
Wright, 60, made his position clear during his Senate confirmation hearing last week: “Previous administrations have viewed energy as a liability instead of the immense national asset that it is.” His appointment signals a dramatic shift from current energy policies, with a laser focus on expanding domestic production across multiple sectors.
The Liberty Energy CEO, who is expected to win Senate confirmation, brings a unique perspective to the role. “To compete globally, we must expand energy production, including commercial nuclear and liquefied natural gas, and cut the cost of energy for Americans,” Wright declared during his hearing. His stance represents a stark contrast to the Biden administration’s pause on LNG export approvals and restrictions on federal land drilling‘.
Let me rewind a little, ESG has been around in one form or another since the mid 1970’s and I can remember in the early 1980’s it was on my first year reading list when an undergraduate – an obscure tome -something about stopping the world from burning. In terms of investment there was a quiet uptick around 2012 to 2014, but it was Covid-19 that there was all of a sudden a rush within technology circles to get to green asap, preferably with a multi-million dollar round of funding.
I know this because a lot of V/C and P/E money was no longer being poured into vanity proptech startups, unless they had green credentials nailed to their masthead. And of course under the Biden administration green technologies flourished, or rather were heavily subsidised and allowed to grow.
Now it would seem that Donald Trump, appealing of course to his grassroots voters wants to MAGA, by scaling up oil and fossil fuel production, as he put it last September, ‘To further defeat inflation, my plan will terminate the Green New Deal, which I call the Green New Scam’. Now of course Trump can and will change policy depending on what he has had for breakfast, but for a lot of companies who are focused on ESG, my thoughts are that 2025 to 2026 will see a lot of funding being cutting from non-profit making property technology companies, both private and public funding.
This will be further speeded by the need of all countries looking at raising their military and defence budgets, as the legacy NATO pact seems destined to re-design itself, which will mean budget cuts in ‘non-essential’ areas. And coming back to that – is looking after the environment, building new property assets, residential and commercial not now a sacred duty to do it in a way that ensures the longevity of the planet – absolutely. But what is ‘right’ and what makes money, are often too very different things.
In a lot of ways, the hundreds of new proptech companies that are still appearing across the world looking to solve Green issues, resolve supply chains by making them ethical and even retro-fitting real estate is to my mind more a cynical ploy, that burst upon the world scene, at a time most of us were in lock down, or shocked by its own mortality.
The winds of change are everywhere, we are seeing oil producers making over 100% profits by drilling, with others who followed the ESG path now being pressured to get back to basics, drill and return large profits to their shareholders. The bigger problem though for ESG aligned technology companies is that Trump’s success relies heavily on the vote of the DBD camp, and by the end of this administration I feel that Biden’s legacy will be forgotten, and Green tech, probably will be superseded by fossil fuel and oil based interests.
Andrew Stanton CEO Proptech-PR
Andrew Stanton Founder & Editor of 'PROPTECH-X' where his insights, connections, analysis and commentary on proptech and real estate are based on writing 1.3M words annually. Plus meeting 1,000 Proptech founders, critiquing 400 decks and having had 130 clients as CEO of 'PROPTECH-PR', a consultancy for Proptech founders seeking growth and exit strategies. He also acts as an advisory for major global real estate companies on sales, acquisitions, market positioning & operations. With 200K followers & readers, he is the 'Proptech Realestate Influencer.'
- Andrew Stantonhttps://proptech-x.com/author/andrew-stanton/
- Andrew Stantonhttps://proptech-x.com/author/andrew-stanton/
- Andrew Stantonhttps://proptech-x.com/author/andrew-stanton/
- Andrew Stantonhttps://proptech-x.com/author/andrew-stanton/
