Sierra Club Highlights Vital Role of State Treasurers in Managing Climate Risks and Workers’ Savings

WASHINGTON, DC – Ahead of this November’s elections, the Sierra Club is contacting voters across several states—Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Oregon, and Washington—where the office of State Treasurer is on the ballot to educate and mobilize its base around the importance of the role for the climate and workers’ savings. State Treasurers hold key roles with public pension funds, manage state finances, and can play a significant role in mitigating the economic impacts of climate change through their investments and engagement with major corporations.

“Corporate greed from big polluters leads to climate destruction, which jeopardizes our economy and retirement savings. The costs of dirty industries' practices should no longer be passed down to everyday people and our futures,” said Ben Cushing, Fossil-Free Finance Campaign Director at the Sierra Club. “Fortunately, State Treasurers have the power to fight back and hold polluters accountable. They can shift state money into investments that support a thriving economy that works for us all. We need leaders who see the risks that climate change poses, not protect favored industries. Our economy, prosperity, retirement security, and climate are worth more than corporate greed.”

In its outreach, the Sierra Club outlines three key ways that State Treasurers can help protect pensioners and taxpayers from climate change and its economic impacts:

• Shift money from dirty to clean energy, and invest in communities;
• Use their voice as investors to hold polluting companies accountable;
• Push for Wall Street to set ambitious climate goals and protect retirement security for all of us.

In the targeted outreach to each state, the Sierra Club has highlighted actions—both negative and positive—that prior State Treasurers have taken or been involved with around climate and its impact on workers’ long-term financial security. In each state, the Sierra Club underscores that voters have an opportunity to chart a new course that either reverses past anti-climate attacks or builds on preliminary action to provide greater leadership:

• Pennsylvania and North Carolina have both experienced attacks on responsible investment policies, including lobbying efforts to undermine sustainable finance by the current Treasurers at the state and federal levels.
• In Oregon, the Treasurer's office put forward a Net Zero Plan because “planning and acting now to address the investment risks—and opportunities of the climate crisis—is a critical next step in making sure the pension fund will produce strong returns for generations to come.” 
• Washington leads the country in climate policies, but its public pension fund is a laggard in holding public companies accountable for polluting practices. The Treasurer is an influential member of the State Investment Board, which oversees the state pension’s shareholder voting.

Further background:

The Sierra Club’s voter education has also highlighted other examples of State Treasurers across the country taking steps to protect the economy and long-term investments from the climate crisis — such as:

• State Treasurers pushed back when ExxonMobil sued investors for bringing forth a climate-related resolution at their annual shareholder meeting. Treasurers joined together and called for shareholders to vote against Exxon’s board of directors.
• The Illinois State Treasurer testified in front of Congress about the importance of considering climate change in responsible investment decision-making.
• The Vermont Treasurer played a key role in passing the historic Climate Superfund Act.

The Sierra Club has also noted how State Treasurers’ climate leadership is at risk amidst the ongoing culture war attacks on sustainable finance. Earlier this year, the Sierra Club analyzed the climate votes taken by many pension funds, which Treasurers help oversee, at companies' annual shareholder meetings, and found most funds have a long way to go in improving.

Beyond that, some State Treasurers have attacked common-sense investing practices that see climate as a financial risk, often by targeting state pension funds. For example, in Oklahoma, the Treasurer and state pension sparred over a mandate that would have blocked the pension from doing business with major Wall Street firms that the Treasurer had deemed to be "boycotting" fossil fuels. This rule not only cost money to the pension fund and taxpayers but it was directed at some of the biggest funders of fossil fuels simply because they adopted modest climate policies.

Another example came recently in Louisiana, where the State Treasurer made contrived attacks against Bank of America, accusing it of “de-banking” fossil fuel companies and cutting it out of business in the state. This happened although Bank of America’s climate and energy-related policies—while lagging behind many of its peers and global best practices—are largely in line with the financial sector’s growing recognition of the risks associated with the climate crisis, and the inevitable transition from fossil fuels to clean energy. As Cushing noted at the time, “This is yet another example of a climate-denier politician taking an action that is not only detached from reality but is also designed to appease corporate polluters at the expense of state taxpayers.”

Meanwhile, the actions of these State Treasurers run counter to the prevailing understanding within the financial sector that managing climate-related financial risks is not a political stance, but a necessary strategy for long-term sustainability and economic stability. According to a global survey of institutional investors released in October: “Incorporating climate-related risks into investments is considered crucial. Investors who are making changes to their investment strategies due to climate change are more likely to reduce their investments in fossil fuels and increase investments in renewables. Across all regions, uncertainty about the future of fossil fuels is making the sector an unattractive investment beyond the next five years.”