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BlackRock, UBS and Legal & General are among asset managers offering more than 60 active environmental, social and governance funds that are invested in BP despite its retreat from renewables to reprioritise fossil fuels.
The FT analysis, based on figures from data provider Morningstar Direct, found that more than 110 active and passive ESG funds held BP by late 2025.
BP decided on a “reset” early in the year after former chief executive Murray Auchincloss said it had gone “too far, too fast” with its green strategy, which he described as “misplaced”. It scaled back its planned 40 per cent reduction in oil and gas production by 2030 to a 25 per cent reduction.
More than 60 funds still holding BP were categorised as actively managed by Morningstar, meaning the fund did not purely replicate an underlying index. High in the ranking were ESG funds offered by Legal & General.
In reviewing the data, Kenneth Lamont, principal of manager research at Morningstar, said: “You would expect if an active manager has not sold out, they should have a good reason why they have not sold out.”
L&G said it “manages investment funds with a range of sustainability objectives”. It continued to “engage constructively with BP and other companies on the financial importance” of the energy transition.
The top 10 in the ranking with holdings in BP, based on the percentage of the fund’s assets, included Royal London, Swiss Canto, BlackRock, Oddo, Banca Popolare and UBS.
Royal London said its products had “specified, aggregate climate targets”, but also had a mandate to invest about 90 per cent of assets in its benchmark index — making it difficult to skip the oil and gas sector in markets such as the UK, where energy companies are a large component.
BlackRock said its ACS UK ESG Insights Equity fund also aimed to closely track the FTSE All-Share Net index, with “sustainability-related tilts”. Its fund prospectus was clear about how the product operated, it said.
Swiss Canto said its “approach emphasises supporting the transition to a low-carbon economy rather than implementing blanket exclusions”.
Banca Popolare’s Popso (Suisse) European Equity Dividend fund said it retained BP after its ESG downgrade by rating provider MSCI last year, but was “closely monitoring any further change in the MSCI rating”.
UBS declined to comment. Oddo did not respond.
By contrast, asset managers that had sold BP holdings from their ESG funds included Axa Investment Managers, now part of BNP Paribas. It previously had three funds with significant exposure.
The Morningstar dataset also showed about 200 funds still held Shell, which did not go as far as BP to pivot its strategy but weakened its policies in early 2024 after the appointment of Wael Sawan as chief executive.
Paul Schreiber, senior policy adviser at green non-profit Reclaim Finance, said the Morningstar data “absolutely reinforces concerns about greenwashing” in presenting products as more sustainable than they are. He called for tighter regulation around the ESG claims.
“Most people do not expect funds that claim to be ESG or green to be exposed to companies that expand fossil fuels,” he said. “Backtracking like BP’s shows that these funds cannot pretend they are supporting companies that are willing to transition.”
Ahead of its annual meeting next month, BP has proposed to revoke two green resolutions passed by shareholders in 2015 and 2019, including one that called for it to disclose how its strategy was consistent with the Paris Agreement on climate change.
It has also excluded a shareholder resolution from Dutch activist group Follow This and 16 institutional investors calling for BP to disclose strategies for maintaining profitability if fossil fuel demand declines.
The EU is looking at excluding fossil fuel developers from some funds branded as sustainable, but more than 130 green organisations have asked for all ESG funds to be included in the ban. “Given the hugely damaging impact of fossil fuel development . . . it is difficult to see how any fund making any type of environmental claim can justify such inclusion,” they said.
Asset managers have found themselves under conflicting pressures between the US and EU over ESG strategies. In the US, Republican-controlled states have taken legal action accusing some managers of colluding to deprive the fossil fuel sector of capital.
In defending the funds, Dominic Rowles, head of ESG at Hargreaves Lansdown, the UK’s largest retail investment platform, argued that if sustainability-focused investors sold out of the oil and gas sector, the shares could be bought by those with less emphasis on these considerations.
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