Wall Street’s Oil Deals Have Climate Activists Resorting to New Tactics

In the summer of 2024, Alec Connon was a regular occupant of the small plaza in front of Citigroup Inc.’s Manhattan headquarters.Author of the article:You can save this article by registering for free here. Or sign-in if you have an account.(Bloomberg) — In the summer of 2024, Alec Connon was a regular occupant of the small plaza in front of Citigroup Inc.’s Manhattan headquarters.Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.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.” 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 & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co. also saw an increase in deals in the period, though less pronounced, the data show.Get the latest headlines, breaking news and columns.By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc.A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder.The next issue of Top Stories will soon be in your inbox.We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try againInterested in more newsletters? Browse here.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.”It’s a viewpoint that’s taking hold among a growing number of climate organizations, including in Europe.“We failed in our mission,” says Lucie Pinson, founder and executive director of Reclaim Finance, a Paris-based nonprofit that’s made a name for itself targeting European banks and insurers over their oil, gas and coal ties. “Instead of fighting human-rights violations or standing up for social justice, we narrowed every issue down to climate change.” She says too often, the focus was “narrow and disconnected” from social and economic issues. Activists today would do well to frame climate as “an energy security issue,” she added.The comments come as climate policies are summarily dismantled in the US and watered down in Europe. Meanwhile the share of voters in rich countries who say climate change is a major threat dropped markedly across the board in 2025 compared with 2022, according to a study by the Pew Research Center. Jobs, inflation, war and immigration are bigger worries, polling shows.Climate bankers have made similar observations. Daniel Hanna, Barclays Plc’s group head of sustainable and transition finance, said last year that a too narrow focus on reducing greenhouse gas emissions has alienated local communities and fueled political tensions.Against that backdrop, Connon says the US-focused campaigns he oversees — which have also targeted JPMorgan and Wells Fargo — will in future need to adopt a different tack. Instead of focusing on their reputations, he says he plans to go after banks’ revenue streams, for example by trying to persuade their clients to take their business to greener competitors.As a model to emulate, he cites the nonprofit Fossil Free Netherlands, which has waged a campaign dubbed Break with BlackRock. “This is the kind of work the climate movement could have done better in the past, and needs to do better in the future,” Connon said. Though two Dutch pension funds — PFZW and PME — have pulled multibillion-euro mandates from BlackRock, neither linked that decision in their public statements to pressure from the Break with BlackRock campaign.BlackRock has described itself separately as a “global leader” in sustainable and transition investing, and says it offers climate-focused clients in Europe products that deliver performance in line with their preferences. The asset manager declined to comment for this article.Connon oversees Stop the Money Pipeline, a coalition of more than 200 environmental nonprofits that’s trying to persuade major clients to step away from banks based on their fossil-fuel dealmaking. That includes an ongoing effort targeting Costco Wholesale Corp. to end its co-branded credit card partnership with Citigroup. A spokesperson for Costco declined to comment.Connon also says he wants to start applying pressure on municipal governments to withhold bond deals from banks judged to have weak net-zero goals. Pinson of Reclaim Finance says she’s now working on new ways to get European banks to sever ties with fossil-fuel clients, which includes framing the issue as one of national security and economic cost.Because whether you believe in climate change or not, relying on imported oil and gas “undermines Europe’s strategic autonomy,” Pinson said. And it “exposes us to the goodwill of counties that are not our friends.”Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion. Please keep comments relevant and respectful. Comments may take up to an hour to appear on the site. You will receive an email if there is a reply to your comment, an update to a thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information.