New York court will see the first trial of an anti-ESG claim

A lawsuit filed with the New York Supreme Court by opponents of investment managers who take climate risk into account may be heard by a New York court for the first time.

According to the conservative charity Americans for Fair Treatment and four New York City employees, their retirement is in jeopardy because former Mayor Bill de Blasio decided to remove billions of dollars' worth of fossil fuel investments from public pension systems.

Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing has been mentioned by Republicans nationwide as a danger to the energy sector. Earlier this year, a federal lawsuit challenging a Labor Department rule allowing investment managers to take ESG factors into account when making retirement fund choices was dismissed.

Bill de Blasio, a Democrat, is accused of failing to "discuss, cite, or refer in any way" to any financial studies that indicated the change would benefit the pension plan's members, after vowing in 2018 that New York City's pension funds will divest from fossil fuel corporations.

The New York City Employees' Retirement System, the New York City Board of Education Retirement System, and the Teachers' Retirement System of the City of New York have all requested that the lawsuit be thrown out.

They pointed out that energy equities lost more than 35% of their value following their decision to no longer invest in fossil fuels, while the value of the overall stock market rose by more than 50%. Furthermore, it is said that public pension funds often choose the portfolio structure.