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Posted: 2020-04-18T12:00:01Z | Updated: 2020-04-18T12:00:01Z

The fight to force financiers and insurers to abandon fossil fuels may soon get some powerful new recruits: the New York City Council.

On Monday, lawmakers in the nations largest city are set to introduce a resolution to formally demand the banks, asset managers and insurance giants with which the city government does business divest from oil, gas and coal.

The resolution, shared with HuffPost in advance, names banking behemoth JPMorgan Chase, asset manager BlackRock and insurer Liberty Mutual as targets of the statement. The move comes as top U.S. banks, including JPMorgan Chase, are preparing to seize oil and gas producers crushed by plummeting oil prices.

As New York Citys death toll from the COVID-19 pandemic soars past 10,000, the legislators behind the resolution hope to lay the groundwork for how we can emerge more prepared to do what we know we have to do to mitigate and prepare for the devastating consequences of the climate crisis thats coming, Brad Lander, the councilman from Brooklyns Park Slope neighborhood, told HuffPost.

We are in the midst of a devastating short-term crisis but the most devastating long-term risk to New York is the climate crisis, said Lander, the lead author of the bill. If were going to have any chance at actually bending the curve on CO2 emissions, we have to confront the capital that is driving it at its scale.