Tesla, the electric car company whose founder and chief executive, Elon Musk, claims it has done more than any company in the world to combat climate change, will no longer be listed on the world’s premier sustainability index. 

Mr. Musk calls the decision a “scam” concocted by “phony social justice warriors.”

The contretemps pits the world’s richest man and one its most prominent companies against an increasingly assertive ranking system that seeks to dole out carrots and sticks to businesses worldwide.   

What Mr. Musk calls a “scam” is the work of the S&P 500’s ESG index, an acronym that stands for “environmental, social, and governance.” ESG standards are meant to guide what the Corporate Finance Institute labels “socially conscious investors” to acceptable places to park their money.  It launched in 2019. 

Mr. Musk tweeted in February that “corporate ESG is the devil incarnate.” Mr. Musk has said that his company is “doing more for the environment than any company ever.” Tesla’s mission statement calls for “accelerating the world to sustainable energy.” 

According to data compiled by Morningstar, an investment research firm, assets under management that abide by ESG standards surpassed $1 trillion in 2020. That total is expected to climb. 

The S&P 500 ESG dropped Tesla, Berkshire Hathaway, Johnson & Johnson, Chevron, and Meta from the ESG index. The exchange explained that these companies “met the index methodology’s chopping block.” The S&P “rebalances” its list every year.  

In a statement explaining the decision, the S&P noted: “While Tesla may be playing its part in taking fuel-powered cars off the road, it has fallen behind its peers when examined through a wider ESG lens.”

This wider lens swept in what IR Magazine calls “racial discrimination, poor working conditions at a Tesla factory and the company’s response to a federal safety investigation.”

The ESG ratings judge corporations against peer companies, which means that while Tesla was dropped, oil giant Exxon remains a member in good standing. This particularly irked Mr. Musk.  

The delisting comes at a turbulent moment for Tesla, which has shed 30 percent of its value since Mr. Musk announced his intention to buy Twitter. In recent days, Mr. Musk disclosed that his financing plan for that acquisition will no longer include loans secured against Tesla.

Mr. Musk has indicated that he will seek a lower price for Twitter due to the presence of a higher percentage of bots on the platform than he anticipated. These fake accounts appear to have made the $44 billion sticker price unsustainable.