Turning Worry Into Impact: What We Learned and What You Can Do Next
Most workers don’t spend much time thinking about their pension fund. It’s money that gets taken out of a paycheck, put somewhere, and hopefully, shows up again when you retire. What happens in between can feel distant, technical, and like someone else’s responsibility.
Earlier this month, Climate Finance Action brought together organizers, union members, investors, and pension advocates to challenge that assumption. The premise was simple but urgent: the money in your pension fund is more powerful than most workers realize, and that power is underutilized.
What followed was a conversation grounded in lived experience, practical strategy, and a growing recognition that pension governance is not someone else’s job.
The money is yours. And it’s enormous.
Jay O’Neal (Pension Power Organizer) opened the webinar by putting the scale of public pension capital into perspective. More than $6 trillion in workers’ retirement savings is currently invested across the U.S. economy. That’s more than the GDP of entire countries. It’s enough capital put solar panels on every house in the country, build a million affordable housing units, or convert the entire U.S. power grid to renewable energy.
“That’s real power,” Jay said. “Pension power.”
But right now, much of that capital continues to reinforce the status quo rather than drive the kinds of changes needed for long-term economic and climate stability. The first step toward changing that is understanding what you’re working with, and recognizing that this is not abstract capital. It’s your money.
Climate risk is already here.
Mary Cerulli (Climate Finance Action) grounded the conversation in how climate risk is already showing up in pension portfolios. There is physical risk as floods, fires, and extreme weather damage infrastructure and property. There is financial risk, as supply chains are disrupted and companies struggle to adapt to a changing economy. And there is systemic risk, the kind that affects entire markets at once and cannot be diversified away.
Mary described it this way: one leaking boat is a problem. A harbor full of leaking boats is a crisis.
For pension funds, that distinction matters. These are long-term investors exposed to the full economy. When risks are systemic, they show up across the entire portfolio. The good news is that many large institutional investors are already thinking about this. The challenge is that those conversations are not always visible to beneficiaries.
And that’s where engagement matters.
You have more leverage than you think.
One of the most important concepts of the evening was fiduciary duty. Fiduciary duty is the legal obligation trustees have to act in the best financial interests of f plan participants. That means you. It is a binding responsibility.
As Mary explained, it is the contractual promise that the people managing your pension must put you first, regardless of political pressure or outside influence. It's a legal guardrail. And it means that when you raise climate risk with your fund, you're not asking them to do something extra, you're holding them to what they're already required to do.
You don’t need to be a financial expert to show up.
This theme came up repeatedly throughout the conversation, and it was brought to life through the experience of Keith Grimmer-Gonzalez (AFSCME Natural Resources Policy Council). Keith leads conservation corps crews in Washington state and has been engaging his State Investment Board for years, starting with a resolution at his union's statewide convention that didn't fully pass, but opened the door to an ongoing dialogue that has grown ever since. His message was direct: you don't need to decode every financial term. You need to show up, ask questions, and make it clear that your retirement is on the line.
Everybody has skin in the game as a pension beneficiary, and that's the most important credential you need.
Moving beyond a single strategy
The conversation also touched on one of the most common and complex questions in pension engagement: divestment.
When an attendee asked how to engage a fund that had become entrenched in that debate, Danielle Fox (Climate Finance Action) offered a reframing that shifted the conversation. Rather than focusing only on what to move away from, focus on what to build toward.
Transition planning, how pension capital can support workers, communities, and industries as the economy shifts, is often a more productive entry point. It opens space for conversations about investment strategy, risk management, and long-term opportunity. Jono Shaffer illustrated this with a simple example: while $10 billion may be a small allocation for a large fund like CalPERS, that same investment can be transformative for a community like Kern County. That’s the scale at which pension decisions operate, and the opportunity they represent.
Collaboration is a strategy
Mary closed the conversation with a reminder that felt both practical and important: pension funds are run by people.
Pension fund staff are often mission-driven people who care about these issues and are navigating real constraints. The goal isn't to close the door before it opens, it's to be part of the conversation and give the people inside the fund the opportunity to be bolder. This doesn’t mean lowering expectations; it means being strategic, showing up with informed questions, building relationships, and creating the conditions for thoughtful decision-making.
And finally, every fund is different, but the path forward exists.
The webinar highlighted examples from Oregon, Maryland, and Massachusetts, where sustained engagement has contributed to real shifts in policy and practice.
Oregon advanced climate-aligned investment through legislation
Massachusetts strengthened stewardship and workforce standards
Maryland integrated climate considerations into governance structures
None of these changes happened overnight. And none of them followed the exact same path. But they all started in the same place: workers, union leaders, and stakeholders deciding to engage and refusing to treat pension decisions as someone else’s responsibility.
Where to go from here
If this conversation raised new questions, there are concrete ways to begin:
Learn how your pension fund is structured. Identify who makes decisions and where influence is possible: who sits on the board, which seats are elected, what committees exist, and where the potential openings are.
Use CFA’s resources to get familiar with key concepts and tools. CFA's Investing in Our Future guide can walk you through that. If you're ready to engage your fund directly, download our transition planning two-pager to get comfortable with the language.
Connect with others in your union or community who are engaging these issues. The distance between workers and their pension funds can feel large. But it’s not fixed.
The more people understand how these systems work, the more they can shape them. If you want to talk through what's possible in your specific state and fund, reach out we'd love to have that conversation.
