When an unknown activist investing outfit called Engine No 1 recruited the world’s largest investors to successfully push for changes to the board at Exxon, there was a debate about its true motivation.

Was this a case of an environmental activist masquerading as a cold-hearted capitalist or was this a capitalist posing as an activist? That an aggressive confrontation around energy transformation can be indistinguishable from financial activism shows just how far the Environmental, Social and Governance movement has come.