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BlackRock, the massive asset manager in charge of $7 trillion, will ditch investments that it considers a sustainability risk, including thermal coal producers — part of an effort to put sustainability at the center of its approach to investing.

"Awareness is rapidly changing, and I believe we are on the edge of a fundamental reshaping of finance," CEO Larry Fink said in his widely-read letter to other chief executives released Tuesday.

Fink predicted that significant changes to how capital is allocated globally are coming, and "sooner than most anticipate."

Other pledges: BlackRock told clients that it intends to double its offering of exchange-traded funds that track companies that meet certain environmental metrics. It's also asking the companies it invests in to disclose plans for operating in a world in which the Paris Agreement's goal of limited global warming to less than 2 degrees Celsius "is fully realized."

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