The climate crisis isn’t coming, it’s here, and every year, it’s getting worse. We’re experiencing stronger hurricanes, deadlier heatwaves, bigger wildfires, and longer droughts.
Executive leadership at Citi, the world’s second largest funder of fossil fuels, knows this, but they keep funneling money into the oil, gas, and coal industries that are devastating our communities and the planet.
There are many people at Citi who are responsible for the bank’s role in financing climate destruction, and one of the most important is John Dugan, the chair of Citi’s board. Citi’s board of directors is responsible for setting the strategic direction of the company and thus far, they’re steering it in the direction of climate disaster.
It doesn’t have to be this way. Citi could stop financing fossil fuels—especially fossil fuel expansion—and help turn the tide to a more just and livable future. But they won’t do it without pressure, which we have to exert.
Fossil fuel infrastructure, such as oil rigs, pipelines, and coal mines, is extraordinarily expensive to build. Companies like Exxon and Enbridge can’t do it on their own. They need financing, in the form of loans, bonds, and underwriting, in order to make it happen. And that financing comes from banks like Citi, which has funneled nearly $333 billion into the fossil fuel industry since 2016.
The climate crisis is deeply unjust. Frontline, BIPOC, and poor communities are hit first and worst by climate disaster, as are young people, students, workers, people with disabilities, incarcerated people, and the elderly. When the air is poisoned with wildfire smoke, as it was on much of the East Coast recently, everyone is impacted, but some people can stay home and can afford things like personal HEPA filters, and some people cannot.
People like John Dugan might feel insulated from the worst impacts of the climate crisis because of their incredible wealth and privilege. That’s why it’s our responsibility to make sure they know just how serious this situation is.
John Dugan has spent his career protecting banks from the consequences of their risky actions, from failing to oversee banks in the lead-up to the 2008 crash when he was the Comptroller of the Currency, to his current role as Citi’s board chair. He needs to hear from us: he can’t keep putting bank profits in front of our lives.
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