Bank of Nature, a transformative strategy to pay for climate security, invites you to explore with us the power of fiduciary duty in common law to compel financial reform among the world’s richest funds – each of which has the scale, mission and as-yet unfulfilled duty to address the climate crisis.

Who: Lawyers, legal theorists, environmental law experts
What: An invitation to critique a direct research exploration of fiduciary duty
When: 12 noon ET - 2 PM ET, Sept 23, 2022
Where: Recorded Zoom (link on request; ian@bankofnature.eco)

We argue that the law is underutilized as a vector for scale change – especially as a way to affect climate security. In particular, global pension funds – an aggregated $56-trillion fund with a defined contract to the future – carry an unfulfilled fiduciary obligation to their beneficiaries. They are in a breach of fiduciary duty.

In our “Beneficiary v. Pension Fund” charrette, we’ll present for discussion new legal theories that put fiduciaries on notice: Pensions funds, endowments and other trusts that engage in climate-dimming investments today are incurring legal liability to their own beneficiaries living with the climate consequences of those investments. We propose there is an "Untaken Safer Alternative" -- embodied by Bank of Nature -- that fulfills their fiduciary duty and stewardship missions and indemnifies fiduciaries against future claims.

Six actionable theories in US law work toward remedies (including declaratory and injunctive relief and damages) and questions of jurisdiction and standing:

Fiduciary duty: How do pensions’ unique fiduciary duties, which extend across generations, impact their evaluation of fund investment strategies?
Public nuisance:In limiting investment to those known to be ineffective in addressing climate-related damage to beneficiaries’ property, reducing the value of their benefits, do pensions create a public nuisance? Do asset managers?
Public trust doctrine: Does the transfer of control of public pension funds to the asset management industry violate the public trust doctrine?
Breach of contract: Do pensions breach their contract with beneficiaries in neglecting climate catastrophe? Do asset managers do the same?
Product liability: Are pensions sold products in the form of investment vehicles which cannot deliver the promised returns?
Financial fraud: Is fraud committed in the knowing transfer of pension funds to investment vehicles which cannot meet their promised delivery or known goals?

What you can do:

Register for the Zoom call Sept 23, 2022: Email ian@bankofnature.eco
Work with us now to prepare for that Zoom call throughout the summer. We can kickstart participation for those able to engage earlier.
Share with your colleagues for whom this would be of interest.

About: Bank of Nature is a program of the Cape Cod Center for Sustainability, a 501c3 nonprofit in Provincetown, MA. We have sponsored a for-credit Directed Research Project by Conor J. MacDonald, JD candidate at Roger Williams University School of Law, Professor David A. Logan, Directed Research Supervisor, and Project Law Group, LLC, Practice Supervisors, to explore using the courts and common law to change the investment behaviors of pension fiduciaries to finance climate solutions. www.bankofnature.eco

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