350NYC.org

Lander should keep his promises. He should set policies into place that move the city’s business from dirtier money managers, like BlackRock, to cleaner money managers over time. His term will end soon. It’s your call @bradlander: mere words or real deeds. /fin

We’re not going to let @BradLander run out the clock and mislead people to think he did the deeds, yet it was only words. In climate policy it’s called “greenwashing” = not the real thing. In fact, that’s a lot of #ClimateWeekNYC: BSing. That doesn’t cut it.

Comptroller Lander’s taken many laudable stances on areas he has no control over. Here, he has real power. He can deliver major action, if he wants to. He could leave a legacy.

Lander’s term isn’t over. He still has the time to act. At this point, though, the promised timeline for action is well past.

I know people probably think that’s common. In my experience, it’s a never event.

On a personal level, I’ve been part of highly-charged deals for big policy shifts before. I’ve not yet seen top New York pols who make a serious agreement turn around, undermine and then break it.

When then-Comptroller Stringer made his promise to deliver oil and gas divestment, he delivered. These are world-leading policies. And Stringer has left a major legacy to his tenure as Comptroller.

Currently, some big European public pension funds are acting by shifting their large business from dirtier to cleaner managers. That’s BIG! Lander had pledged to act for the NYC funds. So far, nothing.

This would mean that NYC would stand up to the right-wing attacks on climate action and push Wall Street to clean up by leveraging its buying power to align its asset managers with climate action to protect both the pension funds and the  planet.

2. As important as the private equity policy he committed to set, Lander promised to set policies to move the city’s business, in a financially-prudent manner, from dirtier to cleaner money managers over time. That’s a way bigger move.

Lander committed to this policy last year. We stood there and applauded, as he promised to implement it… So far It hasn’t been implemented.

Closing off future oil and gas investments through the city’s private equity holdings, while important, is not a “big lift”. It only covers about 10% of the city’s investments.

There are two major areas Lander made very clear, public promises on: 1. Ending private equity investment into oil and gas. The funds already set a divestment policy and implemented it under Stringer. Lander continued it. That covers 90% of their investments.

Unfortunately, Lander’s taken no action to make the words real. We do not see evidence of behind-the-scenes action, though we’ve also been given no visibility into deliberations. It’s now September, and climate week NYC.

When Lander promised to act on a specific program with clear metrics and timeline for implementation, we stood by him. That was before the primary. We took those specific and clear promises in good faith.

Climate action groups @nychange @350NYC @pop4climate and others protested Lander on this issue. We lobbied and agitated for action, just as our movement had done years ago to convince the city’s funds to divest from oil, gas and coal.

Words have power, but deeds matter more. @nyccomptroller @bradlander manages NYC’s huge pension funds. He puts ~$60 BILLION in BlackRock, Wall Street’s dirtiest money manager. In April, Lander announced he’d clean up NYC’s business. As of now, it’s still just talk… 🧵