Dear Jane,
I took a day off from my garden projects to travel down to Citibank HQ in NYC last Friday. I delivered a letter to your building while rebels from Extinction Rebellion set up a tripod on your nice grassy park out front.
Did you read the letter? I read it out loud using a bullhorn, did you hear me? We spent the day in the park outside your office. I spoke with many of your employees as I handed out flyers explaining what we were doing and why. I heard repeatedly that you are a very pleasant and reasonable person to work for. And that you would be open to dialog about the climate emergency we are all facing.
Citibank is the second largest funder of fossil fuel projects in our country. Your bank finances the fossil fuel industry, to the tune of $237 billion dollars, so you’re an enabler. Banks can no longer be prioritizing profit above a livable planet, it is not acceptable.
I recently watched a video of you pledging that Citibank would get to net zero carbon emissions by 2050. Two problems with that pledge:
- Net zero is BS, a convenient way to avoid meaningful action, its complete greenwash.
- 2050 is too late. This crazy 29 year timetable aimed at helping corporations adapt, ends up protecting the profits of the fossil fuel producers. Your too little too late promises will not achieve the long-term temperature goals identified in the Paris Agreement to limit global warming to 1.5°C. There are irreversible tipping points and feedback loops that are going to make this mess go exponential, very quickly.
The 2018 IPCC report called for “rapid, far reaching, unprecedented changes in all aspects of society”. The 2021 IPCC report called it a “code red for humanity. The alarm bells are deafening, and the evidence is irrefutable”.
We are facing looming tipping points into a dramatically changed, less hospitable planet. You have kids, Jane, and so do I. By maintaining business as usual, you are condemning them to an unlivable situation. Wealth will not protect them from the ecological collapse that Citibank and others continue to finance.
We need you and your bank, Jane, to be proactive in stopping the harm because it is already way too late to wait on governments to enact the necessary climate related policy and regulations.
I’d love to meet with you in person, so I can explain how the tipping points and feedback loops work. We are in deep deep trouble, we need people like you to be courageous and wake up the rest of your industry to what’s important. I am begging you to stop funding fossil fuels. Now, not 29 years from now.
Sincerely,
Susan
