When Ricky Gonzalez started organizing pro-Palestinian protests in New York this year, he had no idea the job would eventually lead him to the glass doors of Citigroup headquarters.
It was a breezy morning in July when the 29-year-old activist rushed to the building's entrance with about 20 others. Gonzalez wore a red muscle T-shirt that read “Arms Embargo Now.” Wearing a black and white turban on his head, he sat on the cement floor in front of the Citigroup entrance. His arms were locked in a black PVC pipe with bold white words painted on it: “No Genocide Financing.”
“Hey Citi! Get rid of it! Put the planet before profits,” the group chanted, causing a delay of about half an hour for Citigroup employees to enter the office.
The protests, launched by an emerging coalition of activists against multinational investment bank Citigroup, dealt with two seemingly disparate issues: Israel's war with Hamas in the Middle East and global climate change.
The campaign, dubbed Hot Summer and led by groups such as Stop the Money Pipeline and New York Communities for Change, includes demands that Citigroup stop funding fossil fuel companies, rapidly increase funding for renewable energy, and pay compensation Funds, such as the United Nations Fund, are designed to help poor countries recover from the economic damage caused by climate change. Activists have also called on Citigroup to stop investing in companies that make weapons for Israel.
Protesters have staged more than a dozen actions since June, including people falling to the ground to symbolize deaths from climate change, aimed at drawing attention to the bank's investments. The New York City Police Department has arrested approximately 456 people in connection with the protests.
The impact of war on climate
On October 7, 2023, Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups attacked Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking about 250 people hostage. The war between Israel and Hamas began. Israel responded with a bombing campaign and invasion of Gaza, killing more than 40,000 Palestinians and displacing millions. More than 300 Israeli soldiers were killed in the fighting, and tens of thousands of Israeli civilians were displaced.
Wherever they occur, war itself is a large source of pollution that contributes to global warming. Researchers estimate that Israel's bombing and invasion of Palestine released at least 281,000 tons of carbon pollution in the first 60 days of the war, the result of burning fossil fuels from planes, tanks and other vehicles, plus pollution from bombs, artillery and rockets.
“We know that the military-industrial complex — that war — is a huge driver of environmental injustice and the climate crisis. “We can’t solve the climate crisis without addressing militarism,” said Alec, director of the Coalition to Stop the Funding Pipeline said Alec Connon, a group of more than 200 institutions focused on funding fossil fuel projects, who was one of those arrested at the Citigroup protests in July.
The war also served as a catalyst for activism among many young people. Some of them first came into contact with the organization during recent student-led pro-Palestinian camps and marches across the United States, including at Yale University, which has frequently called on institutions to divest from companies doing business in or with Israel. Activists at the Citigroup protests in New York were joined by older organizers, immigrants and people from the Gulf South, a hotspot for fossil fuel expansion, who traveled to the city to take part in the protests.
Gonzalez's activism began to take shape during the 2020 Black Lives Matter uprising. This year, however, his work reached new heights when he helped organize protests for the “Close Palestine” coalition. He then began to see connections between the broader climate crisis, fossil fuels and America’s relationship with oil-rich countries in the Middle East.
“We are dependent on oil,” he said, “but ultimately, it is a finite resource that has geopolitical consequences.”
Gonzalez was first arrested along with about 150 others in May for blocking traffic on the Manhattan Bridge, but that was not the last time he walked away from a protest in handcuffs. He was arrested again in July during a lockbox operation in front of Citigroup headquarters.
Lockbox operations could involve protesters locking their arms into PVC pipes to create a blockade. Lockboxes are considered a dangerous form of direct action because if officers are not careful when removing the arms, participants could be harmed.
Gonzalez said he had no choice but to take the risk.
“This is by far the hottest summer we've ever had,” he said as police escorted him to a van to arrest him. “If you wait until it's in your own backyard, it's too late.”
Why Citigroup?
Event organizers began targeting Citigroup three years ago, said event organizer Alice Hu, a climate activist with New York Communities for Change. As temperatures rise in New York, where the bank is headquartered, they decided to step up the pressure this year. Summer isn't over yet, but the city has already experienced four heat waves.
Initial climate efforts quickly expanded in scope.
“What has happened since October 7 cannot be ignored,” Hu said.
Estimates of the amount of loans Citigroup has lent to fossil fuel companies vary. The bank has pledged $396 billion in loans, debt underwriting and equity issuance to fossil fuels between 2016 and 2023, according to a report by environmental group and independent research firm Profundo.
Bloomberg reports that Citigroup’s financing of fossil fuels has declined in recent years, but it is the sixth-largest provider of fossil fuel loans since the Paris Agreement was signed in 2015. While the financial institution has publicly pledged to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 and pledged $1 trillion to finance the low-carbon transition, Citi has acknowledged that nearly half of its energy clients lack plans to transition away from oil, gas and coal.
On June 20, the United Nations named Citigroup in a statement calling for an end to arms transfers to Israel. The statement listed numerous companies and financial institutions that have invested in arms companies, including Citigroup, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and BlackRock.
“Failure to prevent or mitigate their business relationships with these arms manufacturers transferring weapons to Israel could shift from being directly linked to human rights violations to contributing to human rights violations, leading to the sharing of potential atrocity crimes,” the statement read. Plan.”
Citi did not respond to multiple requests for comment, referring Yale Climate Connect to its annual climate report.
Bigger than Citigroup
Jenny Stephens, professor of climate justice at the National University of Ireland in Maynooth, said big financial institutions had largely ignored calls to phase out fossil fuels. Over the years, individual banks have pledged to stop funding specific projects, such as coal or Arctic fossil fuel exploration and drilling. However, these actions have not stopped the flow of money into the entire fossil fuel industry. Despite the dollar's depreciation over the past few years, the world's 60 largest private banks have invested $6.9 trillion since the adoption of the Paris Agreement in 2016.
“It’s important that these protesters focus on finance and banking as this is a key part of long overdue change,” Stephens said. “There is currently an inconsistency between climate policy and financial regulation.”
Banks are required to make as much money as possible, but this makes it difficult to wean away reliance on fossil fuels, which have historically been a source of high profits. Stephens said that to solve this problem, central banks need to take action to change the way financial institutions operate.
For example, what if they set higher interest rates for loans to polluting industries?
“You want to incentivize things that are good for society, and you want to disincentivize investment and things that we know are destructive,” she said.
Stephens added that while the problem is systemic, Citigroup's agreement to stop financing fossil fuels would be a strong first step in the right direction. Activists share the same hope.
“If we can unleash one U.S. bank on fossil fuel financing, then other banks will act like a bunch of people,” Hu said.
Activists have had one meeting with Citigroup so far. People directly affected by climate change attended the meeting and shared their experiences with senior executives including Chief Sustainability Officer Val Smith and Managing Director and Global Head of Environmental and Social Risk Management Eliza Eubank. Activists recalled Citigroup employees briefing participants on their climate plan. Connon, who was present at the meeting, considered it a “stalemate,” he said.
No matter how the bank moves forward, or how Israel's war with Hamas is resolved, Gonzalez said he's just getting started.
“We are climate activists,” he said. “The work doesn't end with the ceasefire. To be honest, there is always work to be done.
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