Green irony: Citigroup’s climate sensitivity made it a target for protestors

livemint.com:

Employees at Citigroup’s New York headquarters are facing multiple indignities. Not only does a growing contingent now have to be back in office full time, but to get to their desks, they must walk through a throng of protestors who have been camped outside the bank for much of June. Activists are calling the campaign the “Summer of Heat," vowing to show up outside Citi “week after week" and “month after month" to protest its funding of the fossil fuel industry.

The protests have gotten so disruptive that Citi put out a statement Wednesday advising employees “to keep our cool" and “avoid engaging." You might think Citi ended up in the spotlight because it’s the worst offender in the financial sector. The bank is far from it. Citi is the sixth-largest provider of loans to oil, gas and coal since the 2015 Paris agreement, according to analysis by Bloomberg News, and its fossil fuel lending has steadily declined in recent years; so far in 2024, it’s the 12th biggest provider of loans to the fossil fuel sector.

Citi’s progress is likely what in part made it a target. It has shown that it cares about its sustainability reputation and the activist group is capitalizing on that. Protesters have said as much, noting on their website that they are going after Citi because “we know we can push them to do the right thing." On her first day as Citi CEO in 2021, Jane Fraser said the company would reach net-zero greenhouse-gas emissions in its financing activities by 2050, and has committed $1 trillion for financing sustainability efforts by 2030.