Nov. 26, 2025
New York City Comptroller Brad Lander has a bold new plan: to turn $270 billion of public pension funds into a political springboard. In April, he told every asset manager handling these funds to submit “Net-Zero by 2040” plans or lose their contracts, continuing his campaign against the energy sectors that fuel our country. This move is purely political theater disguised as financial policy, plain and simple. And unfortunately, it leaves the retirement security of firefighters, police officers, teachers, and countless other New York public servants hanging in the balance.
This is not happenstance. After a failed mayoral bid, Lander has made evident his ambitions for a Congressional run next year, likely against Representative Dan Goldman. Viewed through this lens, his climate memo becomes a ready-made campaign prop – a chance to burnish his national progressive credentials. Lander comes from the same DSA-aligned world as Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani. Together, they are proof that the city’s political climate now prizes ideological purity over old-fashioned pragmatism.
According to the Committee to Unleash Prosperity’s 2025 “Putting Politics Over Pensions” report card, much of Wall Street has retreated from ESG-heavy mandates. Lander, however, has allowed political ambition to cloud his judgment, favoring State Street – a firm committed to climate politics – and the most aggressive form of it at that. State Street recently voted for over 80% of environmental and social shareholder resolutions and launched a “Sustainability Stewardship Service” pressuring companies on net-zero goals, diversity, and human rights.
Conservatives who want to stop ESG influence in federal and state retirement systems should take a hard look at State Street. The firm’s record shows a stronger alignment with progressive ESG priorities, a willingness to disregard federal guidance, and a pattern of cooperation with far-left political figures. Progressive politicians openly celebrate State Street’s ESG posture, and Lander is no exception. He has praised State Street as a climate-friendly alternative and even brought a State Street appointee into the leadership of NYC’s pension system.
Just today, Lander applauded State Street’s “robust approach” to pressuring companies in its investment portfolio to “drive real energy decarbonization” regardless of the financial consequences for the businesses that public employees’ retirement savings depend on. Meanwhile, Lander recommended today to move away from BlackRock, Fidelity, and PanAgora due to the firms’ failure to “address climate risk with the seriousness we expect.”
Conservatives and federal regulators have taken note of State Street’s ‘woke’ agenda. In 2023 Oklahoma placed State Street on its ESG boycott list due to the company’s boycott of fossil fuel companies. A year later, Utah Treasurer Marlo Oaks led a coalition of 17 financial officersaccusing the firm of anti-fiduciary conduct and demanding that it stop supporting ESG proposals.
Since 2021, State Street has managed a significant part of the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP), the retirement and investment plan for federal employees and uniformed service members. Entrusting any government-run retirement system – whether it be New Yorkers or federal employees – to a manager aligned with progressive ESG activists, criticized by conservative states, and unwilling to respect federal limits undermines the neutrality that public workers should be able to rely on. BlackRock, the other TSP fund manager, Fidelity, and PanAgora have moved away from ESG to meet federal requirements and guidelines, focusing fiduciary duty over nonpecuniary measures.
Lander is wagering the savings of public servants on a political agenda rather than on financial prudence. Millions of New Yorkers who have spent their lives protecting this city and this country deserve retirement security; not a progressive political stunt playing part in a run for higher office. Brad Lander’s “climate leadership” is ultimately personal ambition wrapped in green rhetoric – a gamble with other people’s money that could leave those who served us best holding the bag.