Climate Activists Storm Conference Stage

Planet Over Profit, a youth-led movement for climate justice urged New York City’s comptroller to divest the city’s pension funds from fossil fuel companies. One of the activists fractured her clavicle in the process.

By Hannah Weaver

Planet Over Profit disrupts a conference. 

Donning button-ups and fake badges, a business casual group of nine blended in with an investing conference crowd entering the New York Marriott at the Brooklyn Bridge. The undercover activists put their heads together, strategizing, before entering Downtown Brooklyn’s Columbus Park for the conference on Monday, September 9.

When Comptroller Brad Lander began his address, they took to the stage, but not as part of the official program.

“Off fossil fuels, Lander,” the organizers chanted, displaying banners with their group’s name, Planet Over Profit. Teddy Ogborn, the group’s co-founder, shouted for the comptroller to divest the city’s pension funds from “dirty asset managers and private equity.”

The group, Planet Over Profit, which was first formed last July, focuses on targeting elites through direct action. The group has a history of disrupting official speeches. Aside from the recent demonstration cutting off Lander’s speech at the Council of Institutional Investing Fall 2024 conference, the group orchestrated a similar disruption at Mayor Eric Adams’ “power breakfast” in April, storming the stage and alleging that Adams has abandoned the working class of New York. Since then, the group has shifted its focus to demonstrating against Lander—who they see as a more progressive figure who could make a genuine impact when it comes to climate change divestment.

Within three minutes, security yanked the activists from the stage and tore through several conference room exits with the activists in tow. Lander remained behind the podium, smiling.

The organizers continued their chanting as they were led away. Planet Over Profit’s other co-founder, Roni Zahavi Brunner, yelled out in pain as a security guard pushed her into the door of one of the conference rooms.

Ogborn and some of the other protesters accompanied her to a City MD urgent care location nearby, where she learned her clavicle was fractured. Zahavi Brunner declined to speak with Grassroots Magazine, citing legal restrictions.

“We think a lot about how we take space and use the tiny amount of time,” Ogborn said later, describing the strategy that goes into these types of protests. “Sometimes it can be dangerous, but I think to go through with that and to feel like it was the right thing to do is always really exciting.”

Back inside the conference, Comptroller Lander brushed aside the interruption and continued his speech.

“Welcome to Brooklyn,” he said. “We have a lot of characters, many that believe in good corporate governance, apparently.”

Lander went on to describe his role in persuading several banks to disclose their fossil fuel lendings as “a big step forward on climate transparency.” In April, Lander, along with the trustees of the New York City Employees’ Retirement System, Teachers’ Retirement System, and Board of Education Retirement System reached shareholder agreements with JPMorgan Chase, Citi, and the Royal Bank of Canada that the banks will regularly disclose their ratio of clean energy financing to fossil fuel extraction financing.

“The work that we are doing in our office is some of the oldest and most thoughtful and ambitious,” Lander said, comparing his work to other fiduciaries working on decarbonization and the climate transition.

During his three-year tenure as comptroller, Lander has committed to a “Net Zero by 2040” plan, which so far has included divesting $3.8 billion from fossil fuels and investing $10.9 billion in climate solutions, according to his office. The plan has faced opposition from some conservatives, including a recently dismissed lawsuit from city employees who said divesting the pension funds from fossil fuels was “detrimental” to their financial well-being.

Many climate activist organizations, however, say Lander is falling short on his promises. As of July 31, the pension fund has invested $3 billion in KKR and $57 billion in BlackRock out of $276 billion total investments, according to data on the comptroller’s government website. BlackRock openly described themselves as the “world’s largest supporters of fossil fuels” in a 2021 press release.

Two years ago, at the start of his tenure, Lander sent a letter to BlackRock CEO Larry Fink outlining concerns over their fossil fuel investments, which climate activists at the time criticized as an “empty gesture.”

Ogborn said Planet Over Profit targeted Lander precisely because of his progressive reputation and his newly launched mayoral campaign, which he announced in July. Lander has met with the group more than once over the past two years, which Ogborn said they find encouraging.

“This is a target that, I think, we can speak to in a real [way],” Ogborn said.

In an emailed statement to Grassroots Magazine following the conference, Lander said he anticipated climate activists would remain integral to the pension divestment fight.

“We’ll keep aggressively pushing the banks, utilities, and auto companies in our portfolio, and every one of our asset managers to accelerate their plans for climate transition,” Lander said. “And we’ll count on Planet Over Profit and other climate justice groups to keep aggressively pushing us.”