*FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE*
Thursday, September 8, 2022
Contact: Shawna Foster, shawna@ran.org 402-214-3014
“Blame Wall Street” for Role in Climate Disaster
New campaign to highlight financial systems structural role in extreme weather, pollution and climate crisis
Lethal heat waves. Wildfires. Hurricanes. Flooding. Wall Street is fueling extreme weather events around the globe by funneling billions of dollars into the fossil fuel industry and deforestation. Stop the Money Pipeline, in partnership with the Action Center on Race and the Economy (ACRE), Public Citizen, Rainforest Action Network, and STAND.earth this fall launched Blame Wall Street, a new campaign aimed at holding Wall Street banks, asset managers, insurance companies, and pension funds accountable for their greed driving the climate crisis.
The campaign kicked off with a virtual rally last night attended by over 100 people. Pressure on Wall Street over their fossil fuel investments is growing, with recent actions targeting Citigroup Inc. at their headquarters and at the Citi’s Taste of Tennis event.
These disruptions are just the beginning: over the coming months, activists will engage in dozens of actions, from rallies and protests to nonviolent direct action, to put pressure on Wall Street to stop financing fossil fuels. For more information on upcoming events, please see our map here.
“Money is the oxygen on which the fires of global warming burn. Ending Wall Street’s support for fossil fuels and deforestation is essential if we want to solve the climate crisis. Wall Street makes big climate promises, but they continue to support fossil fuel expansion. Meanwhile frontline communities are hurting and devastating floods and droughts are wreaking havoc on the lives of millions of people across the world. That’s why we’re taking action. If we can stop the flow of money, we can stop the flow of fossil fuels.” – Aditi Sen, Director of the Climate and Energy Program at Rainforest Action Network.
“Wall Street is lying to us. Insurers, banks, and asset managers have promised to align their business models with the Paris Agreement. Yet they are financing and insuring the Mountain Valley Pipeline, new LNG exports in the Gulf Coast and drilling in the Arctic. Clearly, financial institutions’ internal commitments are not enough. It’s up to us, the people, to build pressure and make them stop funding fossil fuels.” – Hannah Saggau, insurance campaigner at Public Citizen
“With the fossil fuel giveaways in the Inflation Reduction Act that sacrificed Black, Brown and Indigenous communities from the Gulf of Mexico to Alaska, it’s more important than ever that we stand in solidarity with directly impacted communities and fight the expansion of the fossil fuel industry. And that means escalating our pressure on the banks, insurance companies, and investors that are fueling environmental racism and the climate crisis. Wall Street is to blame, but the people have the power to stop their greed,” – Erika Thi Patterson, Campaign Director, Climate and Environmental Justice
“Big Wall Street investors like Blackrock and TIAA are financing the destruction of forests around the world, violating Indigenous Peoples’ rights and making the climate crisis worse. TIAA and Blackrock are killing the climate twice over — by financing the fossil fuel industry AND the big agribusinesses that torch our last forests. They need to stop.” – Jeff Conant, Senior International Forests Program Manager, Friends of the Earth U.S.
“Our planet just cannot afford anymore stalling tactics from Wall St. Divestment from fossil fuels companies is an investment in our future. Frontline communities just can’t wait for the big banks, investors and asset managers to appease the fossil fuel industry while our homes burn and flood, while our bodies are polluted and our children’s futures are destroyed for profit. It’s time to set the standard for the banking industry and stop the financing of fossil fuels now,” said Amy Gray, Senior Climate Finance Strategist at Stand.earth
“TIAA invests massively in fossil fuels, including Exxon, Chevron, Total, Enbridge, BP, Shell PLC, Cricket Valley Energy, Adani (coal), and many more. With nearly $1.4 trillion in assets, TIAA is ignoring the demand for a livable future by those whose pensions it invests: higher education faculty and staff, medical and health workers, and nonprofits. TIAA is also the world’s biggest agricultural landholder, responsible for land grabbing and high emission monocrop farming in the US and Brazil. TIAA must stop escalating the climate catastrophe by financing fossil fuels, land grabs, and deforestation!” – Iris Marie Bloom of the TIAA-Divest from Climate Destruction campaign
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The Stop the Money Pipeline coalition is a coalition of nearly 200 organizations working to hold the financial backers of climate chaos accountable.