Companies ‘Erase’ ESG from Their Earnings Reports
2025 marks the first major trial by fire for sustainability and ESG investing—investment based on environmental, social, and corporate governance factors.
The inauguration of Donald Trump as U.S. president on January 20 has been a dramatic shift, reversing the green advancements made by his predecessor, Joe Biden, who launched the largest clean energy subsidy program through the Inflation Reduction Act.
Immediately upon taking office, Trump signed several executive orders against wind energy, suspending the issuance of permits for land and offshore projects.
Trump’s Impact on Earnings
He also withdrew the U.S. from the Paris Agreement, which sets CO₂ emission limits, and dismantled Biden’s diversity support initiatives. As Trump cracks down on renewables, Europe is also experiencing growing “anti-sustainability” pressure.
The “Trump Effect” is already strongly visible in how U.S. companies present themselves externally. According to data from MacroMicro—a data analytics platform—terms like “sustainability” and acronyms like “ESG” have been largely erased from the financial earnings presentations of S&P 500 companies.
During their analyst calls to discuss Q4 2024 earnings, S&P 500 executives made an average of just 0.10 references to these terms per company. In other words, across every 10 companies in the index, only one mention of these topics was made. In Q3 2024, the figure was even lower—just 0.08 references per company.
Concern over social and environmental issues, which was once a powerful marketing tool, is no longer something companies want to emphasize. At the peak of the sustainability boom in 2021, the average number of mentions reached nearly one per company—amounting to around 500 references across the S&P 500 to sustainability, equality, decarbonization, or ESG.
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