Activists Are Bringing the Heat to the Banks Funding Climate Crisis

As the world broils under month after month of record-shattering temperatures, thousands of activists are engaging in a new campaign of civil disobedience to make fossil fuel’s biggest funders feel the heat.

Backed by a coalition of more than 80 climate and racial justice groups, the “Summer of Heat” is convening every day on Wall Street all summer to take direct action against the financial institutions bankrolling the oil and gas industry. At the center of activists’ divestment demands is Citibank, the second largest financier of fossil fuels worldwide.

In an age of widespread climate nihilism, there is real reason to think that this campaign in particular could successfully push Citibank to change course on investing in fossil fuels. The multigenerational, multiracial, cross-class movement is highly strategic in its embrace of nonviolent direct action, marking “the first time in history that climate activists will hold an entire season of sustained civil disobedience protests targeting Wall Street and big banks for their role in fueling the climate crisis.” There is a track record of similar campaigns getting big wins. And there are signs that Citi is starting to crack under the sustained pressure.

Organizers’ efforts are urgent because the climate crisis is already here. Scientists have shown again and again that fossil fuels are the largest contributors to climate change, emitting planet-warming greenhouse gases when burned. To meet global climate goals, the world must reduce emissions by at least 60 percent over the next decade, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. A massive systemic shift away from fossil fuels is required to avoid the most disastrous impacts of climate change, and financial institutions are at the heart of this battle.

Since the Paris Agreement was adopted in 2016, banks have continued to pour trillions of dollars into fossil fuel firms. In 2022 alone, the world’s 60 biggest banks provided the fossil fuel industry with $673 billion. Stopping this flow of cash would have profound effects on the viability of fossil fuel development and the future of our planet.

And there have been notable successes in this arena. The British bank HSBC announced it would end funding for new oil and gas fields in 2022, and Barclays followed suit in February this year. These wins came after years of pressure from environmental activists, which included hundreds of protests outside the banks and direct actions like supergluing shut the doors of nearly 50 Barclays locations across the United Kingdom. One senior banking executive told a reporter for the British news outlet The Independent that “such direct actions place real internal pressure on bank boards to act faster on climate finance.” Major reports released by environmental groups about the banks’ fossil fuel financing also led to increased pressure and scrutiny, and Barclays faced an internal investor revolt in 2020 over its policies.

The push for banks to divest from coal, the dirtiest of the fossil fuels, has gained substantial traction in recent years. According to a report from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA), “It took almost six years for the first 100 institutions to adopt coal exclusion policies, but since then the number has doubled in just over three years.” Now, more than 200 financial institutions have committed to exiting the coal industry.

Divestment and nonviolent direct action are both established activist tactics with long histories. After years of pressure from anti-apartheid organizers, Barclays divested its holdings from South Africa in 1987. Over 110 universities also divested from South Africa, and even though the cumulative economic impact on the South African economy was minor, the divestment push in the late 20th century is credited with shaping the national discourse around South African apartheid and building popular support for its end. The movement has been a framework for fossil fuel divestment actions, as well as the ongoing protests for universities to divest from companies that profit off Israeli apartheid and the occupation of Palestine.

Summer of Heat activists have chosen to focus their efforts on Citi, not only because of its culpability, but also because it has shown it is susceptible to public pressure in the past. After the 2018 Parkland shooting, Citi implemented new restrictions on working with firms that sell guns, and in 2022, after Texas implemented a ban on abortions after six weeks, Citi pledged to cover employee travel costs to seek safe care. Citi was the first bank to include absolute emissions in its 2030 targets, meaning it set a goal to reduce emissions by a particular amount and not just relative to economic output, an example that Wells Fargo then followed. Jane Fraser, Citi’s chief executive officer, has made ambitious climate statements; on her first day as CEO in 2021, she pledged that Citigroup would reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

There is research to suggest that protests targeting companies that claim to be sympathetic to environmental causes might not actually yield greater wins. But Citi is also a vulnerable target given its past poor performance in the market, and Fraser has been tasked with turning the “troubled” bank around. “Unmanageable and uninvestible. That is how investors have long considered Citigroup,” notes an April article in The Economist. “It trades at half the value it did in 2006, making it the only big American bank to fetch a valuation lower than its peak before the global financial crisis.” While these weaknesses might make Citi double down on its fossil fuel investments, it is clear that the bank is at an inflection point.

Summer of Heat’s nonviolent tactics have primarily included repeatedly blockading the entrance to Citi’s headquarters, including one action where elders blocked doors with rocking chairs. Since the actions kicked off on June 10, more than 475 activists have been arrested and released, nearly all on noncriminal charges of “disorderly conduct” and “interfering with pedestrian traffic” that have been or will be dismissed. Facing down the protesters each day, Citi employees have grown increasingly exasperated. One alleged Citi employee was caught on video shouting at protesters, “Get a machine gun and f–cking kill them all!” In another video, a man who protesters say is Citigroup general counsel Arthur Kohn was caught shoving a young woman.

Still, Summer of Heat is determined to persist with its chosen tactics. “We believe nonviolence is strategic. The state and major corporations have a monopoly on violence; they have far greater means to inflict harm than we do,” states the Summer of Heat website. “While violence may be used against us, we never respond with violent acts. The violent actions of the state and corporations will only inspire people to join our cause.”

In July, Citi obtained a restraining order against one 63-year-old protester named John Mark Rozendaal, a grandfather, professional cellist and adjunct music instructor at Princeton University. Flying in the face of the order, Rozendaal returned to the Citi headquarters on August 8 to perform J.S. Bach’s “Suites for Cello” in the bank’s public plaza. At Citi’s behest, the New York City Police Department arrested Rozendaal, who now faces up to seven years in prison.

“Rather than engage on the merits of their arguments and acknowledge the role they play, Citibank has chosen to unleash a brutal police crackdown on organizers,” New York City Council Member Alexa Avilés said in a statement. “You cannot incarcerate your way to a livable planet. I am calling on Citibank to drop the charges and commit to meeting our shared vision of a livable planet for generations to come.”