New York State, NYC Both Pledge Divestment From Fossil Energy In Retirement Funds
California Gov. Jerry Brown has been getting all the love from world leaders for his climate actions lately. He was treated like a president or prime minster at UN climate talks in Bonn, where he described global warming as an existential threat and said, “We can’t just wait for our national leaders — we need to take action together,” before heading off to the Vatican.
But on Tuesday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo made a fair bid to top him as the nation’s greenest governor, when he announced New York would begin divesting its massive pension holdings from oil and gas — a move that will not only protect the assets of retirees, but help protect the planet they will retire on to.
The remarkable pledge, which he said he will elaborate on during his State of the State address, immediately prompted New York City's controller Scott Stringer to take similar steps, announcing a committee to oversee the process of “decarbonizing” the city’s pension portfolio.
Together the two pledges cover $390 billion, one of the largest pools of money on planet Earth. They won’t actually sell the stocks immediately (among other things, state treasurer Tom DiNapoli will have to be persuaded to move at a greater than glacial pace) but that’s not important.
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http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/n-y-center-stage-climate-fight-bold-divestment-pledge-article-1.3711498