Tag: san francisco

San Francisco: Call for Climate Justice at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum; Nov. 11-18

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cross-posted from Bay Climate Action at APEC

pic via the Stranger in Seattle. July 2023

Organize with and join us and in the streets during the APEC summit in SF Nov. 11-18.

This November in San Francisco, the United States and thirteen other countries plan to announce the conclusion of large parts of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) trade agreement at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC).

Pledge to Resist APEC: https://bit.ly/ResistAPEC

IPEF will have major impacts on climate policy, worker rights and more for decades to come. The people have been completely shut out of these discussions, while corporate CEO’s and lobbyists are keynoting panels with world leaders at APEC. IPEF will do nothing to address the climate catastrophe we are facing and will do nothing to promote an economy that doesn’t rely on extraction. APEC leaders are not taking the climate crisis seriously, and are instead promoting policies that greenwash and hide devastatingly irresponsible backdoor deals with multinational corporations.

In an act of global solidarity, we are seeking to challenge and dismantle the status quo of corporations and all-too-often unaccountable neoliberal leaders of major countries signing trade and environmental pacts that put profit over people and fuel the climate crisis.

If you want to join us please Pledge to Resist APEC via this form. 

We are inviting labor, diaspora, frontline communities and climate justice activists to help plan, organize around and demand the following:

  1. End Climate Pollution. The United States must reverse its disproportionate role in creating the climate crisis, by no longer propping up the fossil fuel industry, rapidly zeroing out greenhouse gas emissions and helping other countries do the same.
  2. Globalize Climate Justice. The United States and all members of APEC must commit to climate justice for communities of color and take action to end the disproportionate impact climate change has on frontline communities and communities of color in their own nations and globally.
  3. Stop Trade Attacks on Climate Action. The United States and all members of APEC must end corporate-driven trade agreements that greenwash, weaken and delay the transition to a just and clean economy, and must commit to a Climate Peace Clause immediately ending trade attacks on climate action.

To add yourself or an organization to these demands, and to learn more about upcoming actions and ways to plug in, please go to https://www.bayclimateaction.com.

Initial Endorsers: Oil and Gas Action Network, Mt. Diablo Rising Tide, Extinction Rebellion SF Bay, California Trade Justice Coalition, Friends of the Earth, Youth vs Apocalypse, Rising Tide North America, ASATA, Brown and Green, 350 Silicon Valley, 350 San Diego, EHL, Trade Justice Education Fund, Alliance for Democracy, Yes!, Thai Community Development Center

SF and NYC: Climate Fighters Disrupt Private Equity Event Demanding End to Fossil Finance!!

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cross-posted from Oil and Gas Action Network

Climate fighters in the Bay Area crashed the “Responsible Investment Forum” in San Francisco – demanding that Private Equity and ESG stop funding the Climate Crisis.

In New York City, more climate and social justice fighters showed up at private equity conference demanding that retirement funds for teachers, nurses and firefighters NOT be used to fund fossil fuel projects.

 

From the Private Equity Stakeholder Project:

“Private equity is buying up excessive amounts of fossil fuel assets – oil wells, pipelines, power plants, operating them out of the public eye and exploiting gaps and loopholes in regulation.

The billions of dollars private equity firms are spending to drill, frack, and burn fossil fuels stand in stark contrast to what scientists say is necessary to avoid catastrophic climate change. The health and well-being of communities of color are particularly affected by the environmental harms of their polluting fossil fuel assets right now.

To make matters worse, private equity is investing in climate chaos using the retirement money of millions of workers – including teachers, nurses, and firefighters in public service jobs – putting the retirement savings of ordinary people at risk as society seeks to move beyond fossil fuels to a clean energy economy.

As other financial actors like banks, insurance companies or utilities attempt to shed polluting assets, private equity asset managers have bought them and operated these fossil fuel assets out of the public eye and beyond the oversight of financial regulators.”

Climate Activists March in San Francisco Financial District, Demanding Banks Defund Controversial Line 3 Pipeline

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Climate Activists March in San Francisco Financial District, Demanding Banks Defund Controversial Line 3 Pipeline

San Fransisco: Today Diablo Rising Tide convened Bay Area climate justice groups and activists in solidarity with the struggle to stop the Line 3 pipeline. A 100 person march of shame” targeted the Wall Street West banks funding the hotly contested tar sands pipeline. Banks included Bank of America JPMorgan Chase, Citibank, Wells Fargo and MUFG subsidiary Union Bank. All located in the Financial District, i.e. Wall Street West.

The struggle against Enbridge’s Line 3 tar sands oil pipeline is heating up in northern Minnesota, with Indigenous activists putting their bodies on the line to stop the pipeline and the harm it will bring to the environment and local communities. Over 200 ‘water protectors’ have been arrested and cited in dozens of actions along the pipeline construction route in recent months and solidarity demonstrations have spread nationwide.

In recent weeks activists from across the US, including the Bay Area, have traveled to Minnesota to occupy pipeline construction sites alongside Indigenous water protectors. At a number of separate camps, they have faced freezing cold temperatures and police repression. The massive pipeline expansion would carry foreign tar sands oil, one of the most polluting and energy intensive forms of fossil fuel in the world and would transport the carbon emissions equivalent of 50 coal fired power plants once operational.

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Bay Area: Trouble-makers Shut Down Chase Branch Over Climate Crisis and in Solidarity with Wet’suwet’en

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CLIMATE ACTIVISTS SHUT DOWN CHASE BANK TO ‘STOP THE MONEY PIPELINE’ TO FOSSIL FUELS

On the heels of Goldman Sachs and Blackrock announcements to divest from oil and gas, pressure is mounting on JPMorgan Chase, the world’s largest funder of fossil fuels   

SAN FRANCISCO, CA, January 31, 2020 —Dozens of local activists launched the ‘Stop the Money Pipeline ‘campaign in Bay Area today with creative disruption at Chase Bank at [location to be disclosed]. These citizens are demanding that JPMorgan Chase – the largest funder of fossil fuels worldwide  – defund fossil fuels immediately to protect the planet. The action was coordinated by the Bay Area Climate Coalition, which includes Extinction Rebellion SFBay Area, Rainforest Action Network, 350 Bay Area, 350 Silicon Valley, XR Youth, Wet’suwet’en Solidarity Front Bay Area, and Diablo Rising Tide.

According to the “fossil fuel finance report card” published by a coalition of environmental organizations, JPMorgan Chase is the world’s top banker of fossil fuels. The bank has provided over $195 billion in financing to fossil fuel companies since the Paris Agreement was signed in 2015. Activist and actress Jane Fonda is helping to lead the call to JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon to stop funding the destruction of the planet.

Anthropogenic climate change, created by emissions from human activity being trapped in the earth’s atmosphere and heating the globe, is causing the collapse of natural systems leading to forest fires, sea level rise, flooding, increasing storm systems and the extinction of species. Communities in California are feeling the impacts of climate change as deadly forest fires.

Other leading financial institutions are recognizing that the risk associated with destroying the planet is bad business. In December, 2019 Goldman Sachs announced that they were formally banning investments in coal and oil, including ceasing to fund Arctic drilling, and would be investing $750 billion in sustainable and climate focused initiatives over the next decade. In January, 2020 Blackrock, the largest asset management firm in the world, joined Climate Action 100+, an global group of investors mobilizing around climate change, and Chairman Larry Fink wrote in his 2020 letter to CEOs “we are on the edge of a fundamental reshaping of finance. The evidence on climate risk is compelling investors to reassess core assumptions about modern finance.”

While critics maintain that these financial institutions need to do more, it may only be a matter of time before the other shoe drops with mounting pressures from consumers, civil society and the very climate itself.

Chase customers are cutting up their credit cards as part of the #CutTheChaseChallenge. The Bay Area Climate Coalition recommends investing with socially and environmentally responsible banks or local credit unions. “A lot of people don’t know where their money sleeps at night. Moving your investments to align with your values is one of the biggest things you can do for the planet,” said Extinction Rebellion activist Sandra (last name omitted for privacy).

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