Sierra Club Applauds NYC Comptroller Recommendation to Drop BlackRock Over Inadequate Climate Plans – CleanTechnica

---

Support CleanTechnica’s work through a Substack subscription or on Stripe.

---

NEW YORK — The Sierra Club applauds today’s announcement from New York City Comptroller Brad Lander recommending that three of the city’s pension systems — which are all implementing net-zero by 2040 plans — re-evaluate their mandate for BlackRock to manage more than $42 billion, due to the asset manager’s inadequate decarbonization plans. The Comptroller’s update also recommends terminating asset management mandates of $384 million with Fidelity and $358 million with PanAgora, after finding that their climate strategies do not meet the pension systems’ fiduciary expectations for managing climate risk.

The recommendation follows a review by the Comptroller of all 49 public-markets asset managers serving the city’s pension funds, 46 of which submitted credible decarbonization plans that met the pension systems’ climate expectations. The Comptroller highlighted persistent gaps in BlackRock’s stewardship approach — including its failure to proactively engage thousands of U.S. companies on climate action — as a central reason the firm does not meet the pension systems’ standards for protecting long-term portfolio value.

If the NYC pension boards adopt the Comptroller’s recommendations and move BlackRock’s $42 billion mandate to other asset managers, it would mark one of the most consequential climate-related actions ever taken by a pension fund in the U.S. or globally. While many U.S. pensions have tightened climate expectations for asset managers, none have redirected funds on this scale over sustainability failures. In recent months, several major UK and European pensions have cut ties with BlackRock and other major asset managers in response to climate shortcomings. In June, the Sierra Club Foundation announced it was moving funds out of BlackRock for not meeting its expectations as a client.

In response to the news, Ben Cushing, Director of the Sierra Club’s Sustainable Finance Campaign, issued the following statement:

“Climate change poses a systemic risk to the entire economy and to the retirement security of millions of workers, and asset owners cannot protect portfolios if their managers are not prepared to confront that risk. By recommending that the pension boards move tens of billions of dollars away from BlackRock, the NYC Comptroller is demonstrating what fiduciary duty requires in the face of systemic climate risk. This isn’t about playing politics — it’s about protecting the retirement security of generations of city workers. 

If asset managers cannot provide credible plans to confront the climate crisis and steward investments responsibly, pension funds and other asset owners have an obligation to move their money to managers who will. This action sets a powerful precedent for other public pension leaders across the country: managers who fail to take climate risk seriously should expect to lose clients to those that do better.”

About the Sierra Club

The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person’s right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.