November, 29 2017, 12:00pm EDT
Experts Resoundly Urge Fossil Fuel Divestment At Public Advocates' Public Hearing On Climate Change
At Rally before the Hearing, Hundreds Call for Divestment of New York City’s Pension Fund from Fossil Fuels.
New York, NY
Experts and speakers ranging from economists, youth and faith leaders, indigenous rights activists, Superstorm Sandy survivors, and advocates thanked NYC Public Advocate Letitia James for organizing Wednesday's public hearing on climate action and made their message loud and clear: It is past time for New York City's pension funds to divest from fossil fuel companies. The NYC Pension Funds have more than $3 billion in oil, gas, and pipeline companies, like Exxon, Chevron, and TransCanada.
The hearing was held one month after thousands of New Yorkers marched across the Brooklyn Bridge to commemorate the 5th anniversary of Superstorm Sandy and call for real climate action from New York City and State, including fossil fuel divestment, adequately meeting ongoing needs in the hardest hit neighborhoods, applying pivotal lessons to plan for future climate disasters, and aggressively transitioning to a fully renewable economy. Over 150 local, state, and national organizations, with strong representation from neighborhoods impacted by the storm, led the march.
At today's public hearing, over 50 speakers, some from as far away as Standing Rock and the Alberta tar sands region of Canada, put forward ample scientific, financial, and moral arguments for New York elected officials to divest from fossil fuels, as an essential means of mitigating the climate crisis.
Eriel Tchekwie Deranger, Executive Director of Indigenous Climate Action and a member of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation traveled from Northern Canadato deliver this message, "Communities like my own have been fighting to safeguard our lands and territories against dirty fossil fuel projects that poison our lands and water, impact our health and threaten our cultural survival. The rights and knowledge of Indigenous communities has been internationally recognized by the United Nations and the Paris Agreement, yet our rights are continually violated by these projects. Together we can make an immediate difference for communities like mine, communities along the pipeline corridor and for future generations if we take the necessary steps now to divest from fossil fuels and uphold the rights of Indigenous peoples."
Just before the hearing, over 100 people rallied outside the Borough of Manhattan Community College calling for New York City to lead on climate, starting with immediate divestment of New York City's pension funds. Frontline activists spoke to the impacts of climate change and fossil fuel extraction on their communities. New York advocates specifically called on Comptroller Stringer to be the climate champion he says he is and authorize divestment immediately.
Michael Johnson, a member of New York Communities for Change and a Sandy survivor said, "I lost everything when Sandy's flood waters rose in my apartment in Coney Island. Five years later, it's high time for New York City to take bold action to fight climate change. Rather than pouring billions of dollars into climate destruction by financing corporations such as Exxon and projects like the KeystoneXL pipeline, Comptroller Stringer and Mayor de Blasio should divest the city's pension funds from fossil fuels. It's great to see Public Advocate James shine a spotlight on this vital issue."
New York City's five pension funds have invested over $27 million in TransCanada, the energy corporation building the KeystoneXL pipeline. Just two weeks ago, over 210,000 tons of oil leaked from the KeystoneXL pipeline, causing irreparable damage. In addition, more than $3 billion is invested in other fossil fuel and pipeline companies. The New York City Employee Retirement System (NYCERS) has $39 million in investments in the Kinder Morgan Pipeline and $87 million in the Dakota Access Pipeline.
Waniya Locke, Ahtna Dene, Dakota, Lakota and Anishinaabe tribes and a water protector from the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, noted, "Water never resists, it flows. We can flow like water into morally decisions of our environment; boosting communities, creating social justice and preserving for future generations as we divest. We can be flowing into divestment as we Stand Up to care for one another. MNI WICONI-Water is life."
Leaders at Standing Rock led the fight last year to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline project and continue to fight to protect the water source on their reservation that is endangered by oil flowing through the pipeline. The effort became a flashpoint last year that brought together indigenous leaders and activists across the nation.
Advocates stated that if New York City is really serious about being a climate champion in the wake of President Trump's withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement, they must stop paying lip service and do the work. That starts with withdrawing their investments in the very companies fueling the climate crisis.
Bill McKibben, the founder of the grassroots climate campaign 350.org and the Schumann Distinguished Scholar in environmental studies at Middlebury College said, "The immorality of investing in fossil fuels becomes more obvious with each passing year. From Sandy to Maria, New Yorkers have seen up close the effects of a planet whose basic systems have been damaged by the production of carbon dioxide from fossil fuel. Existing as it does just a few feet above sea level, New York has every reason to be a leader. Climate change is a timed test, and with each passing month our ability to combat it dwindles. We must act quickly, in the interest of a future that works for all of us."
QUOTE SHEET:
Dorian Fulvio of 350NYC said, "On October 28th, thousands of New Yorker's gathered together to remember the lives lost and damage done to our City by Superstorm Sandy and demand that New York's elected officials take strong action to fight climate change. NYC Public Advocate Letitia James has stepped forward to lead this challenge by hosting a Public Hearing on Climate Action on Wednesday, November 29th. We need swift and bold action on climate change at all levels of government and this is an important first step. As a member of 350NYC, we insist that NYC stop investing public pension funds in fossil fuel companies that threaten our City's future by polluting our planet and causing climate change."
Denise Patel from DivestInvest Network said, "We have a moral obligation to do all in our power to stop the climate crisis. If we do - we can save millions of lives. We can keep global temperature rise below 1.5C. We CAN advance a rapid and just transition to 100% renewable energy. But New York's leaders must show the moral fortitude to reject the fossil fuel agenda that has put us in crisis. It's past time for New York city to divest the pension fund and invest to build a climate safe future."
Fletcher Harper, Executive Director of GreenFaith said, "The time is long past when it was morally acceptable to profit from the fossil fuel industry; it is no overstatement to say that this industry threatens the balance of life on Earth. In the name of life itself, we implore Mayor deBlasio, Comptroller Stringer, and the trustees of the Pension Boards to divest from fossil fuels and to reinvest in a 100% renewable energy future."
Tom Sanzillo, Director of Finance, Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, Former NY first deputy state comptroller said, "Investments in fossil fuels made a lot of money for New York City's pension fund. This is no longer the case. The City and its pension funds have no choice but to act to protect themselves. Investments in fossil fuels today come wrapped in red flag warnings. The way forward is fossil free."
Thomas Kuh, PhD, former Executive Director, MSCI said, "The divestment movement has helped focus attention on the contributions of oil, gas, and coal companies to climate change and the urgency of transitioning to a low carbon economy. It has also compelled many pension funds, foundations, and endowments to consider the potential risks of owning fossil fuel companies and opportunities associated with companies that provide solutions to climate change. This is a critical conversation in the absence of proactive public policy on climate."
Carroll Muffett, President, Center for International Environmental Law said, "ExxonMobil and other major carbon producers face a rising tide of investigation and litigation in courts across the country and around the world--including by New York's own Attorney General. This litigation poses growing risks not only for the carbon producers themselves, but for their investors--including the New York City Retirement System. New Yorkers should rightly ask why their public pension funds continue investing billions of dollars in the fossil fuels that are driving the climate crisis even as the financial, legal and public risks of those investments continue to mount."
Victoria Fernandez, SunRise NYC said, "It's time for cities like New York to fully divest from companies that are leaving our neighbors high and dry. With Trump pulling America out of the only international agreement to stop climate change, young people [in NYC] demand cities and states to have our backs and take real leadership on climate."
David Levine, Executive Director, American Sustainable Business Council said, "More and more businesses understand the impact of climate change. All we need to do is look at the economic impact of Hurricane Sandy and now the over $90 billion of damage to Houston and another $90 billion in Puerto Rico. Our message for decision makers is to look at the full negative economic impacts of a fossil fuel economy. Responsible businesses call for pension funds, investors and legislators to transition investments and subsidies away from fossil fuels, and boost investment in clean economy solutions. Smart investment will enable us to protect the environment and our communities as we grow business and our economy."
350 is building a future that's just, prosperous, equitable and safe from the effects of the climate crisis. We're an international movement of ordinary people working to end the age of fossil fuels and build a world of community-led renewable energy for all.
LATEST NEWS
UN Warns Israeli Ground Invasion Rafah Will Lead to 'Slaughter of Civilians'
"The simplest truth is that a ground operation in Rafah will be nothing short of a tragedy beyond words," said a top U.N. aid official. "No humanitarian plan can counter that."
May 03, 2024
The United Nations' humanitarian aid agency warned Friday that an Israeli ground invasion of Rafah would put hundreds of thousands of Palestinians "at imminent risk of death."
"Any ground operation would mean more suffering and death" for the approximately 1.5 million Palestinians—including around 1.2 million people forcibly displaced from other areas of the embattled enclave—sheltering in Gaza's southernmost city, U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) spokesperson Jens Laerke told reporters in Geneva on Friday.
"The hundreds of thousands of people who are there would be at imminent risk of death if there is an assault," he added, warning of not only "a slaughter of civilians, but also at the same time an incredible blow to the humanitarian operation in the entire strip, because it is run primarily out of Rafah."
Gaza: “This contingency plan is Band-Aids. It will absolutely not prevent the expected substantial additional mortality and morbidity caused by a military operation.” - Dr Richard Peeperkorn of @WHOoPt
“Any ground operation would mean more suffering and death” - @UNOCHA
. pic.twitter.com/tJHt8dh3D7
— United Nations Geneva (@UNGeneva) May 3, 2024
According toPolitico, Israel has shared with the U.S. government its plan to move the civilian population out of Rafah ahead of a looming ground assault the Wall Street Journalreported earlier on Friday could begin next week.
Conditions in Rafah are already dire. The city—which was home to fewer than 300,000 people before the war—is now one of the most densely populated places on the planet. Hundreds of thousands of refugees are crowded together in tents and other makeshift shelters. Water and other necessities are in desperately short supply. According to James Elder, the global spokesperson for the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), there is approximately one toilet for every 850 people in Rafah and one shower for every 3,500 people.
"Try to imagine, as a teenage girl, or elderly man, or pregnant woman, queueing for an entire day just to have a shower," Elder wrote for The Guardian this week.
There are nearly 600,000 children in Rafah, nearly all of whom are "injured, sick, malnourished, traumatized, or living with disabilities," UNICEF executive director Catherine Russell said Wednesday.
The war in Gaza is taking an unimaginable toll on children.
In Rafah, a city of children, the impact of a further escalation would be devastating.
The lives of children must be protected.
All the hostages must be released.
The nightmare for so many families must end. pic.twitter.com/5kOye5VySZ
— Catherine Russell (@unicefchief) May 1, 2024
Dr. Rik Peeperkorn, who represents the U.N. World Health Organization in the illegally occupied Palestinian territories, on Friday called contingency response plans for a Rafah invasion a "Band-Aid" solution.
"It will absolutely not prevent the expected substantial additional mortality and morbidity caused by a military operation," he stressed.
Israel's 210-day assault on Gaza in retaliation for the October 7 attacks has already killed at least 34,622 Palestinians—a large majority of them civilian men, women, and children—while wounding more than 77,800 others, according to Palestinian and international officials. At least 11,000 other Gazans are missing and presumed dead and buried beneath the rubble of the more than 370,000 homes and other buildings destroyed or damaged during the war.
That means around 5% of Gazans have been killed or wounded during Israel's onslaught, the U.N. Development Program and the U.N. Economic Commission for Western Asia said in a report published Wednesday. The agencies called this an "unprecedented" level of casualties in modern warfare and said it would take until at least 2040 to restore all the homes destroyed or damaged during the war.
As many as 90% of Gaza's 2.3 million people have also been forcibly displaced by Israeli forces, who despite a January International Court of Justice (ICJ) order to prevent genocidal acts continue to block adequate humanitarian aid from reaching the starving people of Gaza.
Despite pleas and protestations from world leaders including U.S. President Joe Biden, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to invade Rafah to "eliminate Hamas' battalions there."
Earlier this week, far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called for the "total annihilation" of Gaza, specifically mentioning Rafah. The South Africa-led case against Israel at the ICJ has centered similar statements of intent to destroy Palestinians—which are key to proving the crime of genocide—made by Israeli officials since October.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces have ramped up aerial attacks on Rafah in what is likely preparation for a ground invasion. Palestinian and international media reported Friday that an overnight Israeli airstrike on a home killed at least eight people, mostly children.
"After almost seven months of brutal hostilities that have killed tens of thousands of people and maimed tens of thousands more, Gaza is bracing for even more suffering and misery," U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths said earlier this week.
"The world has been appealing to the Israeli authorities for weeks to spare Rafah, but a ground operation there is on the immediate horizon," he continued. "For the hundreds of thousands of people who have fled to Gaza's southernmost point to escape disease, famine, mass graves, and direct fighting, a ground invasion would spell even more trauma and death."
"The simplest truth is that a ground operation in Rafah will be nothing short of a tragedy beyond words," Griffiths added. "No humanitarian plan can counter that. The rest is detail."
U.S. officials have also privately sounded the alarm over the likely consequences of an Israeli invasion of Rafah.
In March, according to a leaked cable obtained by The Intercept, members of the Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance at the U.S. Agency for International Development warned the State Department that a Rafah invasion "could result in catastrophic humanitarian consequences, including mass civilian casualties, extensive population displacement, and the collapse of the existing humanitarian response."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Jewish Americans to Lead Shabbat Protests Against US Complicity in Gaza
The protests will condemn "the hypocrisy of American politicians cracking down on 'unlawful' behavior at home while repeatedly voting to send Israel more bombs to kill Palestinians in Gaza."
May 03, 2024
Jewish organizers announced plans to hold bicoastal "solidarity Shabbat" protests Friday evening to demand a cease-fire in Gaza and an end to the violent repression of campus anti-war protests across the country.
The Jewish-led organization IfNotNow announced plans to hold the protests in Los Angeles and New York, with "hundreds of American Jews" gathering "together with a multi-faith coalition to take a moral stand against U.S. complicity in the genocide in Gaza."
The Shabbat actions come more than two weeks into a wave of mass protests that have spread on college campuses nationwide, with students setting up encampments and occupying school buildings to demand that universities divest from companies that work with the Israeli government, such as tech firms and weapons manufacturers.
IfNotNow directed participants to wear white and not bring signs to the events, where demonstrators will "uplift the demands of the students of NYC and around the world: Divestment now. Palestinian freedom now. Power to the Students. Eyes on Gaza."
More than 300 protesters were arrested last week at a Passover Seder rally that had been organized by Jewish advocates near Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer's (D-N.Y.) home in Brooklyn.
Arrests of protesters on college campuses in the last two weeks have surpassed 2,100, with more than 200 detained both at the University of California, Los Angeles and at Columbia University—both of which have celebrated their histories of student activism in the civil rights era and during the U.S. war in Vietnam.
On Thursday, President Joe Biden denounced the protests, saying "dissent must never lead to disorder."
IfNotNow called on political leaders to condemn "Israel's war crimes in Gaza, not student protesters taking action for peace."
"The media and politicians would rather scrutinize college campuses than confront the human misery and destruction happening in our name in Gaza which is, of course, the source of these protests," said the group.
"The Shabbat protests will serve to condemn state violence aimed at peaceful student protesters, as well as the hypocrisy of American politicians cracking down on 'unlawful' behavior at home while repeatedly voting to send Israel more bombs to kill Palestinians in Gaza," added IfNotNow.
On April 24, a week into the campus protests, Biden signed a foreign aid bill that included $17 billion in additional funding for the Israel Defense Forces.
At campus protests, some Jewish organizers have held other Shabbat services.
Protesters at New York University were planning a Shabbat dinner for Friday evening in solidarity with Gaza, and last week, students at the University of Pennsylvania took part in a Shabbat service.
"We pray together, we protest together, and we will get free together," said Jewish Voice for Peace Philadelphia.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Israel's Destruction of Gaza 'Unprecedented in Scope and Scale': UN
"These new figures warn that the suffering in Gaza will not end when the war does."
May 03, 2024
A study released Thursday by a pair of United Nations agencies finds Israel's monthslong U.S.-backed war on the Gaza Strip has inflicted unparalleled damage on the occupied territory's population, housing stock, and overall economy—destruction that will reverberate for generations.
As of April 12, Israeli forces have killed or injured 5% of Gaza's population and left thousands more missing, including many who are believed to be buried under the rubble of the enclave's decimated infrastructure, according to the new study by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA).
The report says the level of damage Israel's military has caused to Gaza's housing infrastructure has not been seen since World War II and will likely take decades—and tens of billions of dollars—to recover from.
Achim Steiner, the UNDP's administrator, said in a statement that "every additional day that this war continues is exacting huge and compounding costs to Gazans and all Palestinians, now and in the medium- and long-term."
"These new figures warn that the suffering in Gaza will not end when the war does," said Steiner. "Unprecedented levels of human losses, capital destruction, and the steep rise in poverty in such a short period of time will precipitate a serious development crisis that jeopardizes the future of generations to come."
"Unlike previous wars, the destruction in Gaza today is unprecedented in scope and scale."
Abdallah Al Dardari, the UNDP's regional director for Arab states, said during a press conference unveiling the report on Thursday that there were 2.4 million tons of debris in Gaza after Israel's 2014 assault on the enclave.
Israel's current assault, which historians have described as one of the worst bombing campaigns in modern history, has left 37 million tons of debris in the occupied territory.
The U.N. report was published as Israel's assault on Gaza nears its seventh month and as the Netanyahu government appears poised to launch a ground invasion of Rafah, the southern Gaza city that's currently home to 1.4 million displaced Palestinians.
Citing unnamed Egyptian officials, The Wall Street Journalreported Friday that Israel intends to invade Rafah in a week if Hamas does not agree to a hostage-release deal.
The World Health Organization (WHO) warned Friday that an invasion of Rafah, which Israel has been bombing for months, "could lead to a bloodbath."
The new U.N. report states that if Israel's assault on Gaza continues for another two months, it will leave 1.86 million people in poverty and set back the territory's progress in life expectancy, education, and gross national income growth by more than 20 years.
After months of Israeli attacks on agriculture and other key sectors, the "productive basis" of Gaza's economy "has been destroyed," the report notes.
"Unlike previous wars, the destruction in Gaza today is unprecedented in scope and scale and coupled with the loss of homes, livelihoods, natural resources, infrastructure as well as institutional capacities, may have deep and systemic impacts for decades to come," said Rola Dashti, ESCWA's executive secretary.
"This assessment projects that Gaza will be rendered fully dependent on external assistance on a scale not seen since 1948, as it will be left without a functional economy, or any means of production, self-sustainment, employment, or capacity for trade," Dashti added.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular