WHEREAS, the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) and its members are concerned that climate change poses a serious threat to the health and well-being of our membership and the children we teach, as well as to the city and state of New York, this country, and the global population; and

WHEREAS, the UFT membership elects three employee representatives (teacher members) to the Board of Trustees of the Teachers' Retirement System of the City of New York (TRS), which Board has a fiduciary obligation to oversee investment of TRS assets and to administer TRS' Tax-Deferred Annuity Program for the exclusive benefit of TRS members and beneficiaries; and

WHEREAS, the teacher members of the Board of Trustees have a long history, consistent with their fiduciary obligation, of being in the forefront of major issues of concern to institutional investors; and

WHEREAS, the UFT is concerned about the financial risk that climate change poses to TRS' investment portfolio, and supports TRS' participation in both the United Nations-supported Principles for Responsible Investment Initiative (PRI) — an international network of investors working to put responsible investing principles, including consideration of environmental factors, into practice — and in Ceres, which advocates to accelerate and expand sustainable business practices, including launching the Carbon Asset Risk Initiative to spur the world's largest fossil fuel companies to address the financial risks posed by climate change; and

WHEREAS, the teacher members of the TRS Board of Trustees have further demonstrated their concern and leadership on climate change through shareholder engagement activities that have, most recently, advocated for proxy access at 19 energy companies to demand more board-level accountability on global warming, in addition to prior initiatives on such matters as increased disclosure of environmental impacts of company operations, and recognizes that climate change will continue to be an area of focus for shareholder engagement and proxy voting in 2016 and beyond; and

WHEREAS, the UFT desires to continue to be at the forefront of work toward sustainable investment practices and initiatives, consistent with fiduciary principles; therefore be it

RESOLVED, that the UFT requests that the teacher members of the Teachers' Retirement Board request the Board to direct TRS staff to engage a qualified consultant to review strategies to mitigate the risk posed by climate change to the investment portfolios of the TRS' Qualified Pension Plan and the Tax-Deferred Annuity Program, including through possible divestment from entities that contribute substantially to climate change, such as fossil fuel companies, as well as through possible shareholder engagement  initiatives, consistent with the Board of Trustees' fiduciary duties to TRS members and beneficiaries.