Environmental activists in New York are currently waging a direct action campaign against Citi, one of the city’s largest banking empires, accusing the company of exacerbating the climate crisis.
Angry over Citigroup’s funding of environmentally damaging companies, activists have launched a “Hot Summer” campaign that includes protests and leafleting, complemented by an online printing campaign.
Every week, dozens of protesters gather outside Citigroup’s gleaming headquarters in Lower Manhattan to demand a change in fossil fuel investment policy, following in the footsteps of European activists who have called for the same thing at the eurozone’s major banks.
Almost 600 people have been arrested so far during the protests and sit-ins in New York.
In June, four activist groups – Climate Organizing Hub, New York Communities for Change, Planet Over Profit and Stop the Money Pipeline – joined dozens of other groups in launching the campaign against Citi.
“We’ve been meeting with them for years, and it just felt like we weren’t getting anywhere,” said protest organizer Jonathan Westin, who vowed to continue the campaign until Citi changes course.
“We felt like we had to bring it to their doorsteps.”
Oil and gas production in the Arctic, Amazon and seabed, as well as in thermal power plants, coal mines and LNG plants, have received more than $6.9 trillion from banks since 2016.
This year, the Paris Agreement was signed to limit global warming to below 1.5 degrees Celsius.
By 2023, the world’s 60 largest banks will have allocated $750 billion to fossil fuels, according to a report by NGOs Rainforest Action Network, Reclaim Finance and others.
At the top are the US financial giants JP Morgan Chase, Citi and Bank of America.
“Citi is the second worst financier of dirty energy projects globally from 2016 to 2023, spending a total of $396.3 billion on coal, oil and gas,” the report said.
– “Power to stop” –
“These are the people who have the power to stop climate change… and invest in things that don’t destroy our planet,” one of the protest organizers, Renata Pumarol, told AFP.
Citi emphasizes that it is “transparent about our climate-related activities.”
“We support the transition to a low-carbon economy through our net zero commitments and our $1 trillion sustainable finance goal,” Citi said.
Last year was the hottest year on record worldwide, and several new temperature records were set in July of this year alone.
In a letter to the bank’s leadership, more than 750 scientists warned Citi that “climate impacts will be significantly worse unless we make drastic and rapid cuts in heat-trapping emissions, gradually reduce fossil fuel emissions, and pursue a just transition to a clean energy system.”
Extreme heat events such as droughts, wildfires and floods have affected virtually every corner of the globe, causing devastating damage to health systems, infrastructure and ecosystems.
The UN called the heat a “new epidemic” and warned that the granting of new oil and gas licenses would put the future of our planet at risk.
In addition to government permits and insurance to secure projects, financing is one of the pillars of environmentally harmful energy production.
“Without one of these elements, it cannot move forward. And that is why we are taking action against the donors,” said activist Laurel Sutherlin.
Protester Laura Esther Wolfson said the fight against fossil fuel financing will not be a “one-day fight.”
“The fight for civil rights has lasted years. We cannot stand idly by,” she said.
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