Thread by @PeteSikora1

I can’t recommend enough this @WeAreDrilled @amywestervelt podcast exposing the right wing, fossil-fueled corporate push to force Wall Street entities - @blackrock most of all - to keep pouring money into oil, coal & gas. #StopTheMoneyPipeline 👀👇
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dri…

In large part, this effort is a reaction to the campaign work @billmckibben and others have inspired: getting wall street’s biggest players, who are financing and therefore causing the climate crisis, to shave down their investments.

That effort is central to @nychange strategy. In order for the world to stave off climate catastrophe, mainstream finance needs to flee gas, oil and coal this decade.

The activists and financial strategists pushing divestment and climate risk metrics have barely begun to have an impact. So far, only a little money has moved away from fossils, primarily in coal.

For example, BlackRock stopped investing in a minority of the coal industry in its active funds. Those funds are massive at about $2 trillion, but BlackRock’s passive funds are about $5 trillion.

The company barely dipped a toe into restricting some of the most insanely destructive stuff. Nonetheless that has a huge effect because BlackRock is so humongous and is the market leader.

As a result of this shift and divestment fully moving entities like the NYC pension funds and partly moving even larger entities like the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund and lots of super rich billionaires who don’t want to finance the climate crisis, the right is now mobilizing!

In addition to listening to this podcast and reading this story in the times … nytimes.com/2022/05/27/cli…

I also recommend reading this story by @nathansnewman @thenation about the blue states versus the red states. thenation.com/article/enviro…

In the end, as usual the right wing argument against work capitalism is bizarre and stupid. It will cost the pensions these treasurers manage a lot of money if they stay invested in oil, gas and coal (it already has).

A responsible fiduciary will see that and divest from fossils. The divestment movement has now gotten large enough that it is way past symbolism/stigmatization of fossil fuels, which itself is vital.

Now, it’s large enough to raise the costs of capital (borrowing costs) for the coal industry and is starting to bite oil and gas, too.

I suspect that’s why this right wing campaign now exists.

There’s no way to stave off climate catastrophe if big finance continues to pour trillions into fossil fuels. We have to #StopTheMoneyPipeline.

This item by @billmckibben in the @NewYorker is also highly worth reading. It lays out the key segment of the finance industry:
newyorker.com/news/daily-com…

Check out the podcast and the stories and join efforts like @StopMoneyPipe.

Let’s starve the beast by divesting the oil, gas and coal industry!