Tag: san francisco

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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Bay Area: PG&E, We Need #PowertoLive! On December 16th!

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cross-posted from Diablo Rising Tide

We shouldn’t have to choose between deadly blackouts or deadly fires. We shouldn’t be at the mercy of PG&E’s negligence while vulnerable communities who need #PowerToLive and the public continue to pay the price.

Join us on December 16th at noon at the PG&E corporate headquarters on 77 Beale St in San Francisco to #ReclaimOurPower and let’s start a wave of action that continues through the winter. There will be speakers, programming, and more! Accessible and kid-friendly.

PG&E, we demand you:

1. GIVE BACK ALL SHAREHOLDER PROFITS UNTIL PG&E CAN SAFELY PROVIDE POWER. STOP PROFITING OFF PEOPLE’S LIVES.

PG&E has paid out billions in shareholder dividends to predatory investors, while people are dying due to PG&E’s negligence. PG&E has failed to upgrade infrastructure for the stresses we face amidst climate change. Their equipment failures start fires that burn down cities, displace whole communities, and poison the air we breathe across entire regions. PG&E dodges accountability by continuing to seek executive bonuses amidst bankruptcy, shutting down power instead of repairing their equipment, and spending thousands on an exclusive retreat the day before the largest shutoffs.

2. INVEST IN VULNERABLE PEOPLE’S BASIC POWER NEEDS. STOP PUTTING PEOPLE AT RISK.

Disabled people have died in the shut offs — even one loss is too many. Ten more years of blackouts are unacceptable because blackouts kill disabled people and harm Black and Brown, working class and poor communities. #NoBodyIsDisposable! PG&E must invest in: solar-powered batteries to power the equipment of every medical baseline customer during power outages; HEPA air filters for chronically ill people, elders, and children in areas impacted by fire smoke; groceries for people who live paycheck to paycheck; alternative lodging for people whose homes depend on power to survive; compensation for small businesses who experienced losses during the shutoffs; and, payouts to victims of PG&E-caused fires.

3. TURN PG&E OVER TO THE PEOPLE.

PG&E has a well documented history of criminal negligence of its infrastructure, which has caused fires, death, and destruction. Now, PG&E has claimed that it will take ten years to fix California’s grid — that means 10 more years of rolling black outs with the public footing the bill. This is unacceptable and will consistently put so many lives at risk. We won’t let PG&E continue with their negligence. A public takeover of the grid will allow for the needs of the public, rather than shareholders, to be the priority. By switching to a publicly owned grid, California can create a more democratized, decentralized, and sustainable power grid for all.

RSVP To Join the Action Here