- In today’s CEO Daily: Fortune‘s executive editorial director for Europe Kamal Ahmed reports on why U.S. CEOs are backing King Charles III’s Sustainable Markets Initiative.
- The big leadership story: BlackRock pours $100 million into solving the tradespeople shortage.
- The markets: In the red globally as oil prices jump again
- Plus: All the news and watercooler chat from Fortune.
Good morning. Earlier this week, I journeyed to the 16th century Great Hall of Henry VIII’s home—Hampton Court Palace near London. But the talk filling these halls wasn’t of the past, it was about the future. Brian Moynihan, the chief executive of Bank of America, Ron O’Hanley, the chief executive of State Street, and Janet Truncale, the chief executive of EY, were here to promote private sector efforts to drive the energy transition and climate sustainability. Donald Trump might want to look away.
Moynihan, O’Hanley and Truncale came together following an initiative by King Charles III when he was still the Prince of Wales. He set up the Sustainable Markets Initiative to explore how businesses and investors could accelerate the energy transition, away from a reliance on fossil fuels and towards renewables and nuclear.
“His majesty set this up in 2020 with a goal of driving the private sector to do more, faster for sustainability, a future that’s sustainable for all,” Moynihan said. “We’re a CEO-led organization, a volunteer army coalition of willing people who believe that we’ve got to make this happen the right way in the current context and in the future context.”
The U.S. president has changed the political weather on the energy transition, pulling America out of the Paris climate agreement and calling much of the sustainability agenda a “green scam.” He directly accused Bank of America of “de-banking” U.S. conservative groups, a claim denied by the bank.
BofA is sticking to the path, despite the noises from the White House. It did pull out of the United Nation’s Net Zero Banking Alliance in 2025 along with JP Morgan and Citi but said it still remained committed to its customers on the energy transition.
“The private sector is critical to this,” Moynihan said. “As we said from the beginning: ‘If you need to get this done, private sectors have to drive it—they have the money, innovation, the techniques, the know-how.’ The private sector is important, and we’re now moving to drive forward.”
Moynihan is moderating across the two-day conference. The King will arrive today, providing the royal stamp of approval to continuing progress on sustainability.
“I get asked all the time, is this falling off the agenda?” said Truncale. “And my answer is always that the best companies are focusing on sustainability as core to resilience, value protection, value creation and growth,” Truncale says. “There are two real reasons for that. One is about risk and one is about opportunity.” On the risk side, climate and weather are impacting supply chains, operations, people, assets. But, says Truncale, when it comes to the green economy there’s opportunity—one worth $7 trillion by 2030.
Economic momentum is even greater than a post on Truth Social. The thirst for energy supply chains not linked to the spikes and falls of fossil fuel pricing is driving change. And the recent war in the Gulf has only increased demand for more resilient, in-country renewable and nuclear systems that support the growing demand for electricity.
The U.S. administration’s shift on climate sustainability does not have zero effect, but it is not the only signal. “I think that’s probably where there’s most of the recent confusion in the market, because we haven’t had policy certainty,” said O’Hanley. “Part of it is that some of the early policies were really much more around making commitments, as opposed to really getting at what the fundamental problem is. And I think there’s no place where policy has been more uncertain than in the U.S.
“[But given] the cost of solar and the cost of wind being the lowest margin of any kind of energy—and innovation is driving down these costs—means the fact that we haven’t had policy certainty really doesn’t matter. The place in the United States where there’s the highest amount of renewables is Texas. You think of Texas as being fossil fuel central, and it is in the United States, but it’s also renewable central, and that has everything to do with economics.”
Contact CEO Daily via Diane Brady at diane.brady@fortune.com
Top leadership news
BlackRock invests in the trades
BlackRock announced on Wednesday that the company will invest $100 million in a skilled trade training program. CEO Larry Fink stressed the need for more tradespeople, noting that “America needs an estimated $10 trillion in infrastructure investment by 2033 to modernize aging systems and build new energy, digital, and AI infrastructure.”
The fuel crisis hits Asia
Governments across Asia are introducing energy-saving measures as oil prices spike due to the Iran conflict and the closing of the Strait of Hormuz. Thailand ordered civil servants to take the stairs, Vietnam is encouraging workers to log in from home, and the Philippines is pushing for a four-day work week.
Elon Musk warns to “proceed to caution” after reported Amazon meeting
Elon Musk posted publicly on social media to “proceed with caution” after the Financial Times reported that Amazon held a mandatory meeting to investigate site outages related to AI coding features. The meeting reportedly touched on the need for additional guardrails, though an Amazon spokesperson told Fortune that it was a part of “normal business” that “include[s] a review of the availability of our website and app as we focus on continual improvement.”
The markets
S&P 500 futures are down 0.34% this morning. The last session closed down 0.08%. The STOXX Europe 600 was down 0.22% in early trading. The U.K.’s FTSE 100 was down 0.35% in early trading. Japan’s Nikkei 225 was down 1.04%. China’s CSI 300 was down 0.36%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was down 0.7%. South Korea’s KOSPI was down 0.48%. India’s NIFTY 50 was down 0.95%. Bitcoin was up to $70K.
Around the watercooler
Top economist says Iran war could trigger an economic ‘butterfly effect’—and keep inflation elevated for years by Jake Angelo
MacKenzie Scott gave away more than $7 billion last year—but her secretive style got her snubbed from a top donors list by Sydney Lake
Tim Cook says late Apple cofounder Steve Jobs gave him this unforgettable advice before handing over the reins as CEO: ‘Never ask what I would do’ by Emma Burleigh
CEO Daily is compiled and edited by Joey Abrams, Claire Zillman and Lee Clifford.
