Among the stressors global heating will place on society there’s the fact that adapting to a hotter world is going to cost a ton of money. Stormwater systems, dams, and sea walls will need to be upgraded to withstand more intense flooding. Schools and hospitals designed to retain heat will need to be refitted to withstand punishing heatwaves.
In New York State alone, the costs of adapting public infrastructure due to the climate crisis is projected at $519 billion by 2050. That’s one state in one country. Multiply that across the world and you’re talking many, many trillions.
The question is: who is going to pick up the tab?
This question has vexed global climate talks for years. Low and middle income nations have done the least to cause global warming. Yet, they’re being hit hardest by punishing climate extremes. In response, Global South leaders have pushed the world’s wealthiest nations to pay their fair share for climate damages for decades.
This pushing is what helped create (the still shamefully underfunded) multilateral financing mechanisms, such as the Loss and Damage Fund and the Least Developed Countries Fund ― which are designed to move money to the world’s poorest countries to support climate mitigation and adaptation.
Much more needs to be done to ensure nations that have benefited the most from fossil fuel-driven development are financially supporting those nations hit hardest by climate change: The estimated cost of the rebuilding from the deadly Nepal disaster is $5 billion, but they might not even get $20 million from the UN’s Loss and Damage Fund.
Here in the US, the question of who is going to pay the costs of adapting to a hotter, harsher world has become a key question at the local and state levels, too.
This was the central observation of New York’s Climate Superfund Act. Passed in the twilight of 2024, the Climate Superfund Act requires the largest fossil fuel corporations to pay $75 billion to New York State. Payments would be made in annual $3 billion instalments over a 25 year period.
This bill makes perfect sense. After all, somebody's going to have to pick up New York's $519 billion climate tab – and the industry that caused the problem should pay their fair share.
Unfortunately, last week, New York’s efforts experienced a setback when a federal judge ruled that it cannot enact the legislation. While the case is sure to be appealed, it’s a frustrating development at a time the costs of the climate crisis are becoming ever more clear.
But a single court ruling in a single court can’t stop a movement. Climate superfund legislation has been introduced in sixteen states and one ruling in a single court district does nothing to stop other states from implementing their own Climate Superfund laws.
And across the world, additional efforts to make polluters pay are proliferating like wildflowers after a rain.
In July, Portugal passed a 33% windfall tax on extraordinary profits earned by oil companies due to the Iran War. A bill to that end has also been introduced in the US Senate, and been championed by French campaigners and leading UK politicians.
This year, legislation introduced in California, Hawaii, and New York would enable state attorneys general to sue fossil fuel companies for economic losses from climate disasters.
In Connecticut, a bill we’re working on would place a 5% surcharge on fossil fuel companies' insurance policies, raising millions for climate resilience programs; the bill passed out of the appropriations committee with a supermajority last year. It could well pass in 2027.
The fossil fuel industry clearly sees these attempts for accountability as a serious threat. Big Oil’s puppets in Congress have introduced legislation that would provide the fossil fuel industry with near total immunity from lawsuits and legislation designed to make it pay for climate damages.
This front of the climate fight will enter a new phase next month, as the Supreme Court hears arguments in the Boulder vs Suncor case. If you’re in DC, you should join the People Vs Big Oil rally at the Supreme Court on October 5th.
No matter the outcome of the Supreme Court case though, the question of who is going to pay for the climate crisis is only going to become more salient in the years ahead.
Our job in this fight is to bring a new common sense into being: Polluters should pay for the harm they have caused.
In Solidarity____________
News and Updates from the Coalition.
- Calls to Investigate Musk & DOGE continue to grow
Members of Congress are responding to our calls to hold investigations into Elon Musk and DOGE in the new Congress. Since last month, we’ve secured new commitments from 8 elected officials, including Rep. James Walkinshaw (VA), Senator Cory Booker (NJ), and Rep. Mark Desaulnier (CA). More here.
Check out our latest campaign video, made in collaboration with our friends at Feds Work for You and featuring a former FDA worker who was fired by DOGE last year. Months before the cyclospora outbreak, he warns our food supply will become less safe due to Musk’s disastrous mass firings at the FDA.
To get all the latest campaign updates, sign the petition here.
– Insuring communities, not fossil fuels
Last week, news broke that as insurance companies abandon communities vulnerable to climate disasters, millions of Americans are being forced onto subprime insurance policies that offer less coverage and fewer protections.
In the coming months, we’ll be announcing a major new campaign to hold insurers accountable and pass legislation to make insurers and fossil fuel companies pay for their role in the climate crisis.
If you’re in New York State, take two steps to support this effort right now:
Complete the Insure our Communities survey – we’ll use the responses to this survey to advocate for the game changing Insure our Communities Act. If passed, the IOC Act would force insurance companies to stop underwriting new coal, oil, and gas projects, raising the costs of all new fossil fuel expansion. The survey takes 15 minutes to complete.
Join us on Weds, Sept 23rd at City Winery in Manhattan for our New York Climate Week panel event: An Honest Conversation about the Insurability Crisis. We’ll be joined by NY Assemblymember Gallagher and Assemblymember Forrest’s legislative director, Mirabel Sandler, as we discuss how the climate crisis is driving the affordability crisis, why the Insure our Communities Act is a key part of the solution – and what you can do to help pass it in 2027.
– Unplug AI Week of Action
Between September 19-24, our partners at Planet Over Profit, Climate Defenders, NYCC, RAN and Public Citizen, are organizing a week of action targeting the Big Tech companies driving the AI data center buildout.
The data center build out is a huge threat to our climate goals. US power emissions could rise 20% from data center build out. Not only that but data centers raise our energy bills and pollute our communities, all in service of entrenching Big Tech’s political power over our lives.
The goal of the Unplug AI Week of Action is to make it crystal clear that Big Tech is a climate villain and challenge Big Tech's political power. Join the Unplug AI Week of Action here.
– BlackRock Loses Billions over climate concerns
The Dutch pension fund, Recreation Pension Fund (RPF), is divesting €450 million ($525 million) from BlackRock, owing to climate concerns. This makes RPF, the fourth major European pension fund to break ties with BlackRock, the world's second-largest funder of fossil fuels.
This news also follows analysis suggesting that BlackRock recently lost a $52 billion mandate from Japan's Government Pension Investment Fund (PIF), owing to a shift in the pensions climate policies. If this is accurate, total divestment from the US-based asset managers, BlackRock and State Street, owing to climate concerns now stands at more than $102 billion.
Meanwhile, New York City Comptroller Mark Levine has announced a search for new asset managers for the city’s pension funds and that “limits on carbon” will be a factor considered by the City. Currently, New York City invests approximately $60 billion of its funds with BlackRock.
– Two wins from the frontlines of fossil fuel expansion
Two important developments from the Gulf South, which is home to the world’s largest buildout of new fossil fuel projects. First up, a federal court revoked a license for the Texas Gulflink deep-sea crude oil export terminal project planned off the coast of Brazoria County, Texas.
Next up, one of Japan’s largest public financing institutions, JBIC, announced it would be investigating complaints filed by community advocates over its financing of the Freeport Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) export project. JBIC has provided more than $2.6 billion in financing for the construction of the Freeport LNG project, so this could potentially be a big deal. More here.
– Align your money with your values
Our partners at Third Act host an interactive on-line learning series every month on how we can take action to prevent our bank deposits, credit cards, home/auto insurance premiums, and investments from being used to finance the fossil fuel industry… and instead fund local businesses, community development, and the buildout of renewable energy.
The next learning session is on Monday, Sept 14th at 1PT/4ET. RSVP here.
– Pushing Costco: until we win (and Citibank loses 16% of it's credit card business.)
The Costco Clean Up Your Credit Card campaign is still going strong. Last week, a coalition of frontline community organizations delivered a letter signed by nearly 500 Texans and Louisiana's to Costco’s regional office in Plano, Texas. Shortly after, the team got confirmation from a local warehouse that this delivery caused the regional office to send a note to the nearby warehouses in the area, telling them that they are passing our concerns up to leadership.
We’ve also gotten an overwhelmingly positive response from Costco HQ employees, dozens of which have agreed to share our concerns internally with their teams. Check out this fun video of our canvassing efforts.
Reach out to sarahlasoff@stopthemoneypipeline.org if you want to hear about upcoming on-the-ground campaign opportunities in San Antonio, TX, across Louisiana, or around the Seattle area.
And to close out this month’s newsletter, here’s a photo of Sarah – on helium, apparently – outside of Costco’s HQ:
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