New York’s Decarbonization Advisory Panel developed an April 2019 report advising the State’s Common Retirement Fund how to proceed in considering its fossil-fuel exposed investments going forward. The report develops a framework for assessing these investments, and notes that “the risk of the Fund of being too early in decarbonizing is far less than the risk of being too late. And the time is fast approaching when holding FF-Dependent Companies will be as imprudent as holding whale industry stocks was after kerosene replaced whale oil for lighting.”
In June 2019, this advisory was translated into a Climate Action Plan for the Common Retirement Fund, adopted by the state Comptroller.
In December 2020, New York announced it would follow-through on decarbonizing the investments in the Common Retirement Fund. The state adopted a goal to transition its $226 billion portfolio to net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040. This process will include completion within four years of a review of investments in energy sector companies, using minimum standards to assess transition readiness and climate-related investment risk, with, where consistent with fiduciary duty, divestment of companies that fail to meet minimum standards.