The New York City comptroller, Brad Lander (pictured), has set out new expectations for asset managers, warning they must have credible transition plans to meet net zero if they want to manage the City’s pension funds.
Decrying threats from the Trump administration to dramatically roll back climate progress, Lander demanded more from the asset managers who manage funds for the New York City Employees Retirement System, Teachers Retirement System and Board of Education Retirement System.
Under the funds’ Net Zero Implementation Plan, adopted when Lander took office in 2022, public markets asset managers were already required to submit a Net Zero plan to the comptroller’s office by 30 June 2025. Lander’s latest announcement outlined the strong standards by which his office will evaluate those plans – and made clear that if asset managers do not submit sufficient plans, he will recommend that the boards put those managers’ investment mandates out to bid.
“As Trump systematically guts progress on climate, even as we witness hotter temperatures and more disasters each year, cities like New York must push forward,” stated Lander.
“We won’t bow to pressure to move away from our commitments to decarbonisation. Our new standards demand that the retirement systems’ managers strengthen their Net Zero plans consistent with their fiduciary duty – or we will find new asset managers who will.”
Earlier this year, The People’s Pension pulled large parts of its investment portfolio away from being managed by State Street, with Amundi and Invesco appointed to oversee £28bn in assets as the trust prioritised “sustainability, active stewardship and long-term value creation”.
BlackRock was specifically cited by Olivia Leirer, co-executive director of New York Communities for Change, who urged other blue cities and states to join New York City by divesting from oil and gas, and making their asset managers “clean up their dirty acts”.
PA Future has approached BlackRock for comment.
‘Asset managers should take note’
Responding to Lander’s statement, Jessye Waxman, campaign advisor with the Sierra Club’s Sustainable Finance campaign, said: “We applaud Comptroller Lander and New York City pension leaders for taking steps to protect the retirement savings of teachers and other public workers from climate change. NYC’s pension board is responsible for stewarding its assets on behalf of its beneficiaries, and a key way that can be done is by ensuring its asset managers adequately address climate-related risks and opportunities.
“As Comptroller Lander points out in his letter, asset managers play a key role in supporting the transition to a clean energy economy. We hope to see more climate-conscious investors and pensions join NYC in strategically leveraging their relationships with asset managers to press for more corporate engagement and stronger proxy voting practices that hold corporations accountable for their climate impacts.”
Bryan McGannon, managing director at US SIF, agreed: “Pension funds are universal owners and are investing over an extremely long time frame. They are intrinsically exposed to some of the most financially material systemic risks facing the capital markets, including climate-related physical and transition risk, which will impact myriad sectors, economies and communities. Ensuring their managers are considering all financially material risks and opportunities over the long term protects both Wall Street as well as Main Street.”
However, Agathe Masson, Reclaim Finance’s sustainable investment campaigner, said the move leaves her hungry for more.
“While asset managers without an adequate net zero plan will no longer be able to manage the NYC pension fund money, no money has so far been pulled from BlackRock, Vanguard or other climate-wrecking asset managers, which keep pouring billions of dollars into fossil fuels.
“The ball is now in the court of the boards of the NYC pension funds. We are still waiting for them to announce that they will stop entrusting money to managers who worsen the climate crisis. But the NYC Comptroller has sent a strong signal to the market. Pension funds see climate as a real financial risk, and acting against climate change is part of their fiduciary duty. Asset managers should take note.”
