(Bloomberg) — New York City Comptroller Brad Lander proposed ending fossil-fuel investments in private markets by the city’s pension funds as part of a pledge to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
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The proposal involves barring future investments in energy infrastructure such as pipelines and liquefied natural gas terminals from private equity and infrastructure portfolios, according to a statement Tuesday from Lander’s office. The plan would impact three of the city’s five retirement plans.
“Excluding pipelines and LNG terminals from future investments will help mitigate the systemic risks that climate change poses to the global economy and to New York City’s public pension funds,” Lander said in the statement.
The three funds effected by the decision are New York City Employees’ Retirement System, New York City Teachers’ Retirement System and New York City Board of Education Retirement System, and they’re part of a 2021 net zero pledge to cut emissions by 2040.
The funds, which managed about $206 billion at the end of August, have sold publicly traded investments in owners of fossil-fuel reserves. In the private markets, they also voted last year to stop investing in the exploration and extraction of fossil fuels, according to the statement.
Staff of the comptroller’s Bureau of Asset Management will present specific details of Lander’s latest proposal to the funds’ trustees early next year.
The pension plans were sued by a conservative group last year over their decision to sell billions of dollars of fossil-fuel investments. The lawsuit was dismissed by a New York judge in July.
(Adds comment from Lander in the third paragraph.)
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