New York City Comptroller Brad Lander has backed an aggressive climate agenda, saying that governments may need to impose carbon pricing or mandate a transition away from fossil fuels to achieve net-zero emissions goals.
Appearing on the Temperature Check webinar last year, Lander said stronger government intervention would likely be necessary after major financial firms scaled back their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) commitments.
“A global or a U.S. or a U.S. and European price on carbon would be great, or genuinely mandated policies of transition and conversion,” Lander said. “Anybody that is playing footsie with Donald Trump at this moment is responsible for burning the planet down.”
He went on to argue that financial executives continue to recognize the economic risks posed by climate change despite political opposition to ESG investing. Referring to firms such as BlackRock, State Street, and JPMorgan, Lander said they had faced political pressure but maintained that reducing fossil fuel emissions is necessary to avoid trillions of dollars in future economic losses.
“The red states are squawking and they scare people politically, but I honestly haven’t met one — and that is leading folks like BlackRock and State Street and JP Morgan and many others to draw back, to leave Climate Action 100+ — I haven’t talked to one finance leader who believes it,” Lander continued.
“Those finance leaders see the same climate landscape as the scientists do. And there will be some political costs from the squawking, but if you share this analysis — that if we don’t reduce fossil fuel emissions, we will burn up trillions of dollars in shared value — then you should act based on it.”
Lander’s comments have drawn renewed attention following his victory over Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) in New York’s Democrat primary for the 10th Congressional District.
