As the economy shifts away from fossil fuels, workers and communities are often left to absorb the costs of change. A just transition challenges that outcome by centering worker protections, community investment, and meaningful participation in decision-making. And an often-overlooked dimension: the role of pension funds.

When people first start learning about public pensions and climate risk, one of the most common questions is: Why don’t pension funds just divest from fossil fuels? It’s a fair question. But pension governance is more complicated than simply selling one set of stocks and buying another.

The skills that make a great labor organizer — mapping power, building coalitions, making demands, and holding institutions accountable — are the same skills needed to engage public pension funds on climate risk.

CFA’s Integrated Resilience Checklist is a practical tool designed to help union trustees and workers engage more directly with the decisions shaping their economic futures. The goal is to move conversations beyond general language and into the specific areas where readiness, risk, and accountability can be assessed more clearly. Each section is designed to help you understand what is being done and what that means for workers over time.

Labor justice has always been concerned with the systems that determine whether workers have power, security, and a fair chance at a stable life. Pension funds are one of those systems, and they are systems that workers have a direct and legitimate claim to.

Climate Finance Action’s March 11 webinar brought together workers, organizers, and pension advocates to explore how public pension funds shape long-term economic and climate outcomes. The conversation highlighted the scale of pension capital, the realities of climate risk, and the role fiduciary duty plays in guiding investment decisions. Most importantly, it underscored that workers and beneficiaries have more influence than they often realize and that engagement is a key pathway to change.

Your pension is the result of decades of investment decisions made by asset managers your fund hires on your behalf. Explore what asset manager due diligence is, why climate risk belongs at the center of that process, and what questions workers should expect their trustees to be asking.

Storytelling is one of the most powerful tools workers and unions have for connecting climate impacts to pension governance. This blog explores how personal stories—from heat on the job to flooding in our communities—can help beneficiaries see pension funds as our capital and engage more actively in how retirement savings are invested.

Pension funds face growing systemic risk from fragile critical mineral supply chains, yet have historically avoided mining due to social and environmental concerns. This guest blog explores how improved standards in artisanal mining, paired with sustainability-linked bonds, can deliver resilient supply, reduced risk, and long-term value aligned with fiduciary duty.

Strong workforce standards and climate risk management are deeply connected drivers of long-term investment performance. Drawing on new research and real-world pension policy examples, this blog shows how labor practices affect productivity, risk exposure, and returns.

State and local pension funds face growing climate and market risks, yet many struggle to invest in resilient infrastructure and economic modernization within their own regions. This piece explores why structural and operational barriers hold funds back, and how in-state climate investment can strengthen long-term returns, local economies, and fiduciary outcomes.

Responsible Investor features Climate Finance Action’s research on why US public pension funds are falling short in addressing climate risk as a systemic financial issue, highlighting governance gaps, outdated risk models, and barriers to scaling climate solutions.

As climate risk reshapes regional economies, union leaders and pension stakeholders must move beyond compliance-focused climate disclosures toward integrated resilience and transition readiness. This blog outlines why better data, forward-looking governance, and active engagement are essential to protecting workers’ jobs, pensions, and long-term economic stability.

As climate risk becomes undeniable financial risk, the challenge facing public finance is no longer awareness, but action at scale. In this letter, CFA’s Executive Director outlines how Climate Finance Action is focusing its 2026 work on modernizing fiduciary duty, empowering beneficiaries, and scaling a just transition rooted in high-quality jobs and resilient communities.

CFA’s work was recently featured in Sustainable Views, which examined how public pension funds are navigating climate risk, governance reform, and in-state investment opportunities. The excerpt highlights key insights from CFA Executive Director, Mary Cerulli.

State pension funds have the capital to secure retirements while strengthening local economies and advancing climate resilience, yet many U.S. funds underinvest in opportunities within their own states. Drawing from Unlocking State Power: Overcoming Barriers to In-State Climate Investment for Pension Funds, this blog explains how governance gaps, rigid asset frameworks, and cultural inertia—not a lack of viable projects—are the real barriers.

Learn how public pensions can manage climate risk and opportunity in private markets with responsible stewardship in mind.

Over five years, Climate Finance Action has helped trustees, union leaders, and public financial officials better understand and act on climate risk within public pension systems. By translating complex financial and climate concepts into practical tools, building trusted partnerships, and supporting policy and governance reforms, CFA is strengthening long-term retirement security while advancing climate-resilient investment practices.

Public pension funds face systemic risks like climate change, inequality, and market instability that cannot be diversified away. This explainer uses the Prisoner’s Dilemma to show how long-term investors can shift outcomes through cooperation, engagement, proxy voting, and shared governance strategies that protect retirement security and market stability.

This blog breaks down the two essential strategies every climate-resilient pension needs: mitigation and adaptation. These strategies help pension funds protect workers’ retirement security, reduce systemic financial risk, and invest in a more stable, resilient future.