The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously on April 5 to support Senate Bill 1173, which will require the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, also known as CalPERS, and California State Teachers’ Retirement System, known as CalSTRS, to divest from all fossil fuel holdings, and will prohibit any new investments or renewal of existing investments in fossil fuel businesses.

“The brand new [Intergovern-mental Panel on Climate Change] report is unequivocal: it’s now or never if we want to limit planetary warming to reasonably safe levels,” said Los Angeles City Councilmember Paul Koretz, 5th District, author of the resolution to support SB 1173. “That means we need to immediately stop subsidizing the dangerously reckless fossil fuel industry. The pension systems are intended to provide workers a safe future. We need to provide those same workers that safe future with our investment decisions as well.”

In the wake of the IPCC report and amid the rapid worsening of climate impacts in Los Angeles, California and elsewhere, the city has prioritized actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to the furthest extent possible, as soon as possible. The city has been reconfiguring its relationship with the fossil fuel industry, including declaring local oil drilling a non-conforming land use and examining the L.A. City Employees Retirement System Investments system.

Financial divestment has proven to be an effective advocacy tool to achieve climate-related goals, Koretz added. The climate mitigation-related fossil fuel divestment movement has achieved nearly $40 trillion in commitments to full or partial divestment from coal, gas and oil stocks.

For information, visit councilmemberpaulkoretz.com.