Tesla owner Elon Musk bashed Environmental Social Governance as “the devil” after investment data firm S&P Global gave the electric car company a lower ESG score than Marlboro maker Philip Morris International.
“Why ESG is the devil…” Musk tweeted on Tuesday in response to a reporter’s coverage of the ESG results, which showed Tesla receiving a dismal 37 out of 100.
Meanwhile, the cancer-causing cigarette maker scored a shocking 84.
“How could cigarettes, which kill over 8 million a year, be deemed a more ethical investment than electric cars?” Washington Free Beacon journalist Aaron Sibarium, tweeted.
“One answer: Tobacco’s gone woke,” he added, to which Musk replied his condemnation of ESG.
To determine the ESG scores, S&P analyzed 8,000 companies for 1,000 data points, including climate strategies, labor practices, stakeholder engagement, codes of business conduct and board diversity, among many others, according to its website.
Tesla’s “medium” score of 37 was the amalgamation of its environmental, social and governance ratings, which were 60, 20 and 34, respectively.
Meanwhile, tobacco firms ran laps around the multibillion-dollar electric car maker.
British American Tobacco earned an ESG score of 88 while Philip Morris International scored 84 and Imperial Brands — which sells fine cut tobacco, rolling paper and cigars — scored 42.
Oil giant Shell also outranked Tesla with its ESG tally of 41.
An S&P Global spokesperson said that “company scores are comparable within the relevant sector rather than across industry groupings,” noting that “tobacco companies and automotive manufacturers are assessed on their performance and relative to their peers in their respective industries, not to each other.”
The Post reached out to Tesla for comment.
However, Tesla soared above Musk’s other venture, Twitter, which scored just 12 points — “low” by S&P Global’s standards.
Twitter’s economic score was a dismal zero, while its social score was just eight and governance rating reached 21.
The stark difference in ESG results — which are used by investors ensuring their money goes towards economically responsible missions — begs the question of where Tesla is going wrong.
The pioneering EV maker boasts a mission “to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy.”
It also touts its sustainable efforts in annual “Environmental Impact” reports, which says the battery-powered cars “significantly” reduce emissions per mile when compared to gas-run vehicles.”
As of 2023, more than 4 million Teslas were reportedly on roads worldwide, while the World Health Organization estimated there to be 1.3 billion tobacco users globally.
“Tobacco kills half its users,” the WHO states on its website, with more than 7 million deaths resulting from direct tobacco use and 1.2 million from exposure to second-hand smoke.
