Managing a public pension fund takes real financial expertise, but it also takes a kind of knowledge that rarely gets called expertise at all: the lived experience of the workers whose deferred wages built the fund. In this guest blog, CFA's Danielle Fox makes the case that workers often see climate and economic risk before it ever shows up in a financial report, and that the strongest pension governance brings financial expertise and worker experience into the same room.

Managing a public pension fund takes real financial expertise, but it also takes a kind of knowledge that rarely gets called expertise at all: the lived experience of the workers whose deferred wages built the fund. This piece makes the case that workers often see climate and economic risk before it ever shows up in a financial report, and that the strongest pension governance brings financial expertise and worker experience into the same room.

From fiduciary duty and pension governance to storytelling and climate-resilient investing, these are Climate Finance Action's most-used educational resources. Explore practical guides, checklists, toolkits, and white papers designed to help workers, union leaders, trustees, and advocates engage public pension funds with confidence.

Understanding how public pension funds work is one of the most effective ways workers can protect their retirement security and advocate for climate-resilient investing. This guide introduces eight foundational concepts, from fiduciary duty and strategic asset allocation to proxy voting, transition planning, and private markets, along with practical resources to help union members, organizers, and advocates engage pension funds with greater confidence and impact.

Over the past two years, Climate Finance Action has published practical resources, guest perspectives, and educational guides to help workers, union leaders, trustees, and pension beneficiaries better understand the intersection of public pensions, climate risk, and responsible investing. This collection highlights some of our most-read articles, from pension investing fundamentals to worker-centered approaches to climate resilience and fiduciary duty.

Your pension is not a gift from your employer or the state — it is a portion of your wages, deferred and invested on your behalf, which means the trillions of dollars sitting in public pension funds across the country came from workers and belong to workers. This piece unpacks what "labor's capital" means, why the language matters, and what workers, trustees, and organizers can do with it.

Your pension fund is not just a promise of future security — it is a multi-billion-dollar pool of economic influence that union members have the power to shape. This guide walks through ten practical tactics, from running trustees for the board to engaging the media, that unions are already using to build accountability and drive change in their pension systems.

CFA spent the weekend at the Jobs With Justice Workers Revive Democracy conference, leaving with renewed conviction that pension engagement is most powerful when it's rooted in organizing, worker voice, and cross-movement solidarity. We're carrying forward a deeper commitment to helping workers see themselves not as spectators but as stakeholders in the institutions that shape their lives.

When forty-five union and environmental leaders in North Carolina were interviewed about "green jobs," they meant very different things, and that gap, argues sociologist Todd Lu, is one of the most important problems standing between us and effective climate action. In this guest post, Lu draws on his research and the work of journalist Amy Schiller to propose three ways institutional investors can lay the groundwork for durable labor-climate coalitions.

CFA organizer Dan Nicolai has a new piece out in Labor Notes making the case that union members are already changing how public pension funds operate, holding boards accountable, advocating for climate-resilient investments, and pushing back against efforts to silence worker voices. From CalPERS incorporating labor standards to Oregon's decarbonization plan to teachers in Minnesota questioning where their money goes, this is the work CFA exists to support.

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.