HomeEconomyNew York eco activists turn on Citi over polluting investments

New York eco activists turn on Citi over polluting investments

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Environmental activists in New York have continued a marketing campaign of direct motion in opposition to Citi, one of many metropolis’s foremost banking empires, accusing it of fueling the local weather disaster.

Enraged by Citi’s bankrolling of polluting companies, activists have unleashed a “summer of heat” marketing campaign that features protests and leafleting, coupled with a web based strain marketing campaign.

Every week, dozens of protesters collect at Citigroup’s gleaming headquarters in Lower Manhattan to demand it change its fossil gas investments coverage, following within the footsteps of European campaigners who did the identical with eurozone banking giants.

Nearly 600 individuals have been arrested on the New York protests and sit-ins up to now.

In June, 4 activist teams – Climate Organizing Hub,ities for Change, Planet Over Profit, New York Commun and Stop the Money Pipeline – created the marketing campaign in opposition to Citi, at the side of dozens of different teams.

“We met with them for years, and you just felt like we were getting nowhere,” stated protest organizer Jonathan Westin, who vowed to maintain up the marketing campaign till Citi adjustments course.

“We felt like we had to bring it to their doorstep.”

Oil and fuel exploration within the Arctic, Amazon, and seabed alongside thermal energy vegetation, coal mines and liquified pure fuel (LNG) vegetation have obtained greater than $6.9 trillion from banks since 2016.

That was the yr the Paris Agreement was signed to try to maintain world warming beneath 1.5 levels Celsius (2.7 levels Fahrenheit).

In 2023, the world’s 60 largest banks dedicated $750 billion to fossil fuels, in response to a report by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) Rainforest Action Network, Reclaim Finance and others.

U.S. finance giants JP Morgan Chase, Citi and Bank of America lead the pack.

“Citi is the second worst funder of dirty energy projects in the world from 2016 to 2023, spending a total of $396.3 billion on coal, oil and gas,” the report claims.

‘Power to cease’

“These are the people that have the power to stop … and make investments in things that are not destroying our planet,” one of many protest organizers, Renata Pumarol, instructed Agence France-Press (AFP).

Citi insists it’s “transparent about our climate-related activities.”

“We are supporting the transition to a low-carbon economy through our net zero commitments and our $1 trillion sustainable finance goal,” Citi stated.

Last yr was the most well liked on report globally, whereas a number of new temperature data have been set in July this yr alone.

In a letter to the financial institution’s leaders, greater than 750 scientists warned Citi that “climate impacts will be significantly worse if we do not make deep, rapid cuts to heat-trapping emissions, phase out fossil fuels, and pursue a just transition to a clean energy system.”

Extreme warmth occasions, reminiscent of drought, forest fires, and floods, have hit just about each nook of the planet, wreaking havoc on well being care, infrastructure, and ecosystems.

The U.N. has referred to as warmth a “new epidemic,” warning that new oil and fuel licenses have been signing away the way forward for the planet.

Finance is among the planks underpinning polluting vitality alongside authorities permits and insurance coverage to ensure the initiatives.

“Without any one of those pieces, it can’t proceed. And so that’s why we’re going after the financiers,” stated campaigner Laurel Sutherlin.

Protester Laura Esther Wolfson stated the battle in opposition to fossil gas financing wouldn’t be “a one-day fight.”

“The civil rights struggle lasted years; what we cannot do is sit back and do nothing,” she stated.

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