Sierra Club Urges CalPERS to Strengthen its Climate Action Plan Ahead of November Board Meeting

SACRAMENTO, CA - The California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS), the largest pension system in the U.S., will hear an update from its sustainable investment team on its climate action plan at its next board meeting on November 17, according to the agendaand supplemental documentspublished on its website.

Earlier this year, California Common Good - a coalition of which the Sierra Club is a member - published a reporthighlighting how CalPERS includes investments in some of the world's largest polluters in its measure of climate solutions. With this latest update from CalPERS, the Sierra Club is once againcalling on CalPERS to adopt climate principlesthat guide its investing strategy and focus on solutions that accelerate real-world decarbonization - such as investments in green housing and clean energy.

In response to the news, Allie Lindstrom, Senior Strategist with the Sierra Club's Sustainable Finance campaign, issued the following statement:

"CalPERS' climate action plan, which uses size as a signal of ambition and counts progress in billions, doesn't demonstrate progress on the things that matter most: emissions avoided, communities served, and clean energy expanded. This isn't a PR issue - it's about how investment strategies need to shift in a changing economy. System-level risks require system-level solutions. For a fund of CalPERS' size and influence, that means using its leverage to mitigate the systemic risks of climate change that threaten both the economy and its beneficiaries' pensions. CalPERS should start by adopting climate solutions principles that set clear investment exclusions and clearly define the strategies needed for mitigation, adaptation, and transition.

Sierra Club advocates and CalPERS beneficiaries will continue to speak out and make it clear that counting holdings in fossil fuel companies as 'green' doesn't drive the energy transition - it just distracts from real solutions. It's time to prioritize the climate investments that matter: strategies to build green housing, tools to support a just transition for California communities, and investments in strong supply chains for clean energy."

About the Sierra Club

The Sierra Club is America's largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit https://www.sierraclub.org.