We appreciate Treasurer Read and the Oregon Investment Council (OIC)’s management of our members’ retirement funds, and the fact that our state remains among the soundest, most solvent pension funds in the nation. Today’s decarbonization plan is a critical step to ensure that our investments are financially sound and stop contributing towards climate change as expeditiously as possible.  

SEIU 503 acknowledges climate change’s fiduciary risk to our beneficiaries and its negative material impacts on our members and frontline communities. Workers and our communities must be treated fairly and justly in the transition to a green economy, and OIC’s investments need to reflect this as we decarbonize our portfolio. It must be a just transition. 

Our members look forward to working closely with the Oregon Treasury, OIC, and our partners – including the PERS Coalition and environmental justice organizations – in developing a final decarbonization plan. We believe we can constructively engage with the Treasury on outstanding issues such as improving transparency of its fossil fuels investments, the rate of decarbonization of the portfolio, and the metrics needed to warrant reinvestment from fossil fuels. Climate change will not wait, addressing it is a top priority for our members, and we look forward to urgently addressing this issue in partnership with the Treasury, OIC, and our other partners.