So you wanna green your investment portfolio
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Money to educate consumers could be in shorter supply. I'm David Brancaccio in Los Angeles. The acting head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has a plan to cut funding for financial literacy and consumer education. The

The bureau set up in the wake of the 2008 financial collapse is decidedly out of favor in this second Trump administration. Here's Marketplace's Henry Epp. The CFPB can charge and collect penalties from consumer financial companies that it finds violate federal laws. Some of that money goes to its civil penalty fund.

That fund is primarily used to compensate victims. But if those victims can't be found, the CFPB can use the remaining money to help pay for its financial literacy and consumer education programs. The Trump administration wants to stop that. Its proposed rule change would mean the CFPB could no longer use its civil penalty fund to pay for consumer education efforts. The rule is open for public comment on the Federal Register until July 18th.

It's the latest move by the Trump administration to limit the CFPB's work. It previously attempted to fire most of the agency's employees, but those layoffs were paused by a federal judge in late April. I'm Henry Epp for Marketplace.

We'll get profits and revenue from the consulting firm Accenture later this morning. The company, based in Ireland, years ago branched off from its parent, Arthur Anderson Accounting. The consulting industry is under pressure with reduced spending by the U.S. government these days. Marketplace's Stephanie Hughes has more. During the pandemic, lots of companies were turning to consultants to figure out how to deal. So it was a really big boom of spending. It was abnormal. Brian Bergens, an equity analyst with TD Cowen.

Nowadays, companies are dealing with economic uncertainty and a trade war. And while some are turning to consultants to help them cut costs, others are less interested in paying outsiders to tell them what to do. You may not know what your supply chain is going to look like in six, 12 months from now. For you to then say, OK, I'm going to make this multi-year strategic decision, it's very difficult.

Meanwhile, Harvard Business School professor Sunil Gupta says more companies are trying a DIY approach to problem solving. So they're saying, well, this is our job. Why should we outsource it to somebody else? We should be thinking about strategy anyway. Also, TD Cowan analyst Brian Bergen points out companies have been spending a lot on artificial intelligence. That leaves less room in the budget for advice from humans. I'm Stephanie Hughes for Marketplace.

Likely the first contract for the outfit that became Accenture. A study in the 1950s to help General Electric decide whether to install one of those massive contraptions called a computer. I just looked at a piece indicating it was the first commercial use of one of these computer things. Recruitment.

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Now to an update on a campaign for big investors to pressure fossil fuel companies using the power of the portfolio. It could work, but some argue there are better ways for climate-conscious investors to make a difference. Amy Scott from Marketplace's How We Survive team has been reporting on the connections between our money and our climate. Hey,

Hey, Amy. Hey, David. How do we start to understand the scale here? There is a group called Stand.org that has counted more than 1,600 institutions worth more than $40 trillion collectively that have committed to divesting some or all of their assets from fossil fuels. And that list includes faith-based organizations, colleges and universities, pension funds, and

Some have committed to selling stocks or bonds or other investments in any fossil fuel related business. Others, though, have just pledged to get out of, you know, the dirtiest energy sources like thermal coal and tar sands.

But there is some debate about how effective divestment is at actually reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Well, I want to ask you about that. I mean, divestment is credited with contributing to the end of apartheid in South Africa. Does this divestment movement involving energy have the potential to have?

Real world effects. I mean, I'm talking about lowering greenhouse gas emissions. Right. It can be very effective. But How We Survive spoke with Kelly Hsu, who teaches finance at the Yale School of Management. And her research has shown that the strategy can actually backfire because it makes it harder and more expensive for so-called brown companies to raise money. And that makes them less likely to invest in new technology or abatement efforts.

And what we find is empirically when brown firms have experienced a higher cost of capital in the past, they actually go out and pollute more per unit of capital because that's the way they get cash right now.

And Hsu says climate conscious investors may have more impact by engaging with the companies to push them to invest in cleaner energy. All right. Engaging shareholder resolutions like that. Exactly. Or voting for more climate friendly board members. New York City is one example. Its public employee pension system has a goal of net zero emissions in its portfolio by 2040.

To get there, it has divested from thermal coal and fossil fuel reserve owners and stepped up its investment in clean energy. But it's also using its power as a big shareholder to pressure other big emitters like utilities to decarbonize. We spoke with Brad Lander, who's controller for New York City. I should also say he's running for mayor. Lander says the city sees both engaging and divesting as tools in its climate efforts.

Where we can engage and get people to move and make real plans for transition, like we're working on with those utility companies or with car companies, great. And Lander says the city's engagement is actually more effective because companies know it's serious about divesting if they don't make enough progress.

Now, individual investors will decide for themselves on this issue, but there are essentially calculators to at least help them see what they own. Yeah, a good place to start is the website FossilFreeFunds.org, where you can look up your individual mutual funds or ETFs if you have a retirement account, for example, to see how much fossil fuel exposure you have and compare greener alternatives.

Amy Scott hosts our climate podcast, How We Survive. You can catch it wherever you get your podcasts or at marketplace.org. Amy, always great to catch up. Thanks, David. And we've got the solstice coming up tonight. I'm David Brancaccio, Marketplace Morning Report from APM, American Public Media.

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