A new Wall Street protest playbook

Shaming banks to drop fossil fuels hasn't worked

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For years, climate activists sought to shame the world's biggest banks into abandoning fossil fuel finance. Now, they're starting to admit that the strategy isn't working. Today's newsletter looks at the new playbook campaigners are using to prod the finance industry to do more to tackle global warming. Also, the latest on the blizzard that's brought New York City to a standstill. Did someone forward you this newsletter? Subscribe to Green Daily for more free reads on climate change and finance. New tactics By Alastair Marsh In the summer of 2024, Alec Connon was a regular occupant of the small plaza in front of Citigroup's Manhattan headquarters. As a chief architect of a months-long, headline-grabbing protest against the bank's funding of fossil-fuel companies he was to be found either in a human chain blocking the front door, holding a placard, or chanting, "Hey Citi, get off it, put planet over profit." A climate activist holds a sign during a protest outside of Citigroup headquarters in New York, 2024. Photographer: Jeenah Moon/Bloomberg Less than two years on, and Citigroup has increased its financing of fossil fuels through loans and bonds. In 2024, it ranked seventh among banks doing such deals. Last year, it had climbed the league table to become No. 4 thanks to a 16% jump in such transactions, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo also saw an increase in deals in the period, though less pronounced, the data show. At the time of the protests, dubbed Summer of Heat by Connon and his co-campaigners, Citigroup said it was open to "constructive engagement," but criticized any effort to "intimidate employees." The bank declined to comment for this article. Connon says it's now time for climate campaigners like him to acknowledge that the methods they've been using haven't worked as intended, and to come up with a new playbook. "For too long we believed that if we could tarnish the reputation of financial institutions by linking them to the companies causing the climate crisis, we could get them to act," he said. "That was a mistake." Read the full story about how activists are developing new strategies to push financial institutions to stop funding fossil fuels. Big client $17 billion The value of a mandate that BlackRock lost from one of the Netherlands' largest pension funds, which was concerned the money manager wasn't acting in its clients' best interests regarding climate risk. Failed message "Instead of fighting human-rights violations or standing up for social justice, we narrowed every issue down to climate change" Lucie Pinson Executive Director of Reclaim Finance 'Super bomb' blizzard By Brian K Sullivan, Mary Hui, and Joe Wertz A powerful winter storm has cut off New York City, grounding thousands of flights and straining transport networks, as 41 million people along the US East Coast brace for blizzard conditions in what could be one of the city's worst storms on record. A person rides a bike along Manhattan's Times Square during a snowfall in New York City on Feb. 22. Photographer: Charly Triballeau/AFP/Getty Images The storm, named Hernando, is "potentially crippling" for a lot of areas across the Northeast, said Brian Hurley, a senior branch forecaster at the Weather Prediction Center. For New York City, Long Island, New Jersey, most of Rhode Island and eastern Massachusetts, it has the potential to bring extreme impacts, topping the five-step scale used by the agency to predict winter systems. More than 10,000 flights into and around the US were canceled through Tuesday — most of them originating or terminating in New York, Boston and Philadelphia, according to data from FlightAware. Delta Air Lines said it expects to suspend operations at New York's LaGuardia, John F. Kennedy International airports and Boston Logan International Airport into Tuesday. Heavy snowfall, combined with high winds could lead to cascading travel delays on the ground too, as well as power outages that will likely spread across the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast. US natural gas futures jumped as much as 6.8%, with the colder weather set to boost demand for heating. "Blizzard conditions are expected and will make travel treacherous and potentially life-threatening," the New York branch of the US National Weather Service said in a notice late Sunday. Read the full story for details on the blizzard and subscribe to Bloomberg's Weather Watch newsletter for the latest updates. More from Green Legal & General is committing $1 billion over five years as part of a strategic partnership with Enosis Capital targeting debt swaps. The agreement is intended to "support transactions with a development focus in emerging markets," L&G said in an emailed statement on Monday. The partnership will give L&G "earlier, more direct engagement" with sovereigns and implementing partners, among other benefits, the asset manager said. Governments – typically developing nations – use such swaps to refinance debt on better terms and direct savings toward environmental or social projects. Recent talks on structuring deals have focused more on health programs and alleviating poverty, with environmental goals often taking a back seat, Bloomberg reported earlier this month. The oil majors that operate Kazakhstan's second-largest field have filed for international arbitration of their dispute with the government over a $5 billion environmental fine. A US solar trade group sees the energy storage market growing by 21% this year as demand for batteries outweighs policy headwinds. This week's Zero For years, a major drag on Ethiopia's budget has been subsidizing gasoline for consumers. Bloomberg In 2024, Ethiopia did something revolutionary. It banned the import of fossil fuel cars and cut tariffs on electric vehicles. This week on Zero, Akshat Rathi talks with producer Oscar Boyd and Ethiopia-based EV entrepreneur Yuma Sasaki about the EV boom that ensued and what that tells us about the growth of EVs in rapidly developing countries like Ethiopia. Listen now, and subscribe on Apple, Spotify or YouTube to get new episodes of Zero every Thursday. More from Bloomberg Business of Food for a weekly look at how the world feeds itself in a changing economy and climate, from farming to supply chains to consumer trends Hyperdrive for expert insight into the future of cars Energy Daily for a daily guide to the energy and commodities markets that power the global economy Tech In Depth for analysis and scoops about the business of technology Explore all Bloomberg newsletters. Follow us You received this message because you are subscribed to Bloomberg's Green Daily newsletter. If a friend forwarded you this message, sign up here to get it in your inbox. Unsubscribe Bloomberg.com Contact Us Bloomberg L.P. 731 Lexington Avenue New York, NY 10022 |