Gavin Newsom tells CalPERS, CalSTRS to favor green investments in climate change order
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday signed an executive order to leverage the might of California’s $700 billion public pension funds and the state’s purchasing power as a highway builder in a campaign to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Newsom’s order caps a week in his administration fought with Trump administration over the state’s authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions through the California Air Resources Board, and in which the $83 billion University of California Retirement Plan announced that it would divest from fossil fuels.
“Our state is proof that you can reach some of the strongest climate goals in the world while also achieving record economic growth,” Newsom said in written remarks. “How we meet this moment will define our state – and country – for decades to come, just as the emergence of the internet defined our economy over the past few decades. We have to get ahead of this and align our state investments, our purchasing power and our transportation and housing policies to be ready to meet this moment head-on.”
Newsom’s order does not instruct the $380 billion California Public Employees’ Retirement System or the $237 billion California State Teachers’ Retirement System to pull money out of oil and gas.
Read more: https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article235306877.html
(Sacramento Bee)