By Ben Zeisloft
Florida lawmakers approved a bill to prevent state and local government entities from offering debt or investing public funds in accordance with the environmental, social, and corporate governance movement, also known as ESG.
Members of the Florida Senate voted 28-12 in favor of the legislation on Wednesday after their counterparts in the Florida House voted 80-31 to pass the bill last month. The legislation now awaits the endorsement of Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis.
The legislation would prohibit government actors from issuing “ESG bonds,” defined by the bill text as financial products such as green bonds and certified climate bonds meant to “finance a project with an ESG purpose.” The legislation also mandates that Florida public investment officials must enact decisions “based solely on pecuniary factors” and are not permitted to “subordinate the interests of the people of this state to other objectives, including sacrificing investment return or undertaking additional investment risk to promote any nonpecuniary factor.”