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Citi are in the climate crosshairs 🎯

Citi are facing activists for the billions in funding they're giving to fossil fuels.

🚨Update – Citi just had it’s AGM. There were two unprecedented votes on stopping new fossil fuel expansion and stopping the violation of indigenous rights. Both got much more support than expected, but neither passed. This is just the start. Stopping Citi being the second worst fossil fuel funder in the world isn’t about shareholders, profits, or even CEOs. It’s about fighting at every step until Citi realises it’s ignoring science, funding destruction and threatening a safe future.

Now, Citi staff are joining the fight and confidentially speaking out against Citi’s fossil fuel funding. If you’re a Citi employee, you can join your colleagues and take the confidential survey here: https://rp38jmcm937.typeform.com/citi-staff

Here’s the original blog post:

Citi is the second worst fossil fuel funder in the world – and now it’s facing a wave of protests from climate activists and Indigenous leaders. Despite big claims and good PR, Citi continue to enable the fossil fuel companies drilling for new oil, gas and coal. Since 2016, Citi have given $285 billion to fossil fuel companies. You read that right. $285…billion.

Now, activists are calling out Citi bosses just before the crucial Citi AGM. Here’s just a few of the actions:

1) Crashing the Citi Sustainability talk

Citi’s head of sustainability, Davida Heller, thought she was about to give a talk on how the bank are thinking sustainably. She was hoping to give an account of all the “green” initiatives Citi are taking, whilst covering up their billions in on-going investments. That’s not what happened.

Activists from New York Communities for Change entered the talk and put up posters outlining Citi’s investments and suggesting questions Davida Heller:

The questions demand answers for Citi’s involvement in violations of indigenous rights, giant coal funding, deforestation, and pollution. The posters were up all over the venue:

An activist even took on Heller (and JP Morgan’s head of sustainability Marilyn Ceci), by speaking directly to her during the session:

2) The NASA scientist

Peter Kalmus is a lead NASA scientist looking into how climate change is destroying our planet. Peter, along with other prominent scientists, called out Citi (2nd worst in the world) and JP Morgan (1st worst in the world), by gluing himself to their offices:

“We’re tired of being ignored. We tried being unbiased. We tried being silent. We’ve tried the policy game. We’ve tried celebrities. We’ve tried everything.” – Allan Chornack, Wildlife Biologist.

More and more scientists across the world are speaking out, and will continue calling on Citi to stop pouring billions into climate change.

3) Extinction Rebellion NY shut down Citi’s lobby

The message was clear – follow the science. The science shows that to keep to 1.5C of warming, there can be no new oil, coal or gas extraction. Yet, Citi are ignoring the science. This led Extinction Rebellion New York to occupy Citi’s headquarters and demand an end to Citi financing new fossil fuel projects:

Activists continued to occupy the hall until arrests were made later in the day.

 

These are only a few actions, there are plenty more actions happening. Citi are facing climate activists across the country, and they’re under serious pressure for their addiction to funding fossil fuels. They must change in a radical way to stay aligned with the science. They have the power to do it, and activists won’t stop until they do.

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