New York City Comptroller Brad Lander on October 22 announced a proposal aimed at halting future private markets investments by the city’s public pension funds in midstream and downstream fossil fuel infrastructure, including pipelines and LNG terminals.
The proposal builds on prior divestment actions taken by the New York City Employees’ Retirement System (NYCERS), the Teachers’ Retirement System (TRS), and the Board of Education Retirement System (BERS) to decarbonize their investment portfolios. It would expand the funds' previous exclusions, which included divestment from fossil fuel reserve owners in their public equities portfolios and a ban on upstream fossil fuel investments in private markets, established in 2023.
“Climate risk is financial risk, and we have a fiduciary duty to our beneficiaries to take that risk seriously as we make long-term investment decisions,” Lander said in a statement announcing the proposed change. “Excluding pipelines and LNG terminals from future investments will help mitigate the systemic risks that climate change poses to the global economy and to New York City’s public pension funds.”
Lander’s office said the exclusions align with city pensions’ comprehensive Net Zero implementation plans established in 2023. The plans involve annual reporting of Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions, engaging with portfolio companies and asset managers to decrease actual emissions, and a substantial increase in investments in renewable energy and climate solutions.
View the press release here.
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