William Porayouw, Contributing Photographer

Members of the Endowment Justice Coalition paid a visit to former President of Mexico Ernesto Zedillo’s global affairs seminar on Monday, criticizing the ties that the economist and former politician retains to the investment banking company Citigroup Inc. 

Citi has long been criticized for its investments in the fossil fuel industry. Among all global banks, Citi is the second-largest funder of fossil fuel companies, investing $285 billion in the industry between 2016 and 2021 alone. Zedillo has served on Citigroup Inc.’s board of directors since 2010, a role that members of the EJC say is out of line with his public commitment to fight climate change. Zedillo told the News that he has retired from Citigroup Inc.’s board, and will not stand for re-election at the 2022 annual meeting.

The EJC, a student group focused on the ethical allocation of University resources, has historically focused its advocacy on pressuring Yale to divest its holdings in the fossil fuel industry. In February, the group sent a complaint to the office of the Connecticut Attorney General arguing that the University’s investments violate state law.

“We believe Citi’s actions are unconscionable,” EJC organizer Josie Steuer Ingall ’24 told the News. “We think that we can really use the power and privilege that are granted to us as students at this institution to make an impact and to align ourselves with the movement organized by groups like Bank on our Future that are really particularly targeting banks and lenders as bad actors who are fueling the climate crisis.” 

The protest came a day before Citi’s annual shareholder meeting, which will take place on Tuesday. At the meeting, the shareholder advocacy group Harrington Investments will present a resolution calling on Citi to align its financing efforts with the demands of the climate crisis, Steuer Ingall said, including by ceasing to add new fossil fuel investments to the group’s portfolio. EJC hoped to push Zedillo to stand in support of the Harrington resolution at Tuesday’s meeting.

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Zedillo has spoken publicly about the lack of coordinated international action to combat climate change, ​​arguing in 2019 that the world remains “off-track” to preventing a significant climate disaster. 

Steuer Ingall told the News that Zedillo had not responded to the group’s previous efforts to contact him. Thus, the group planned to confront the former president where they knew they would be able to find him — “Debating Globalization,” his 9:25 a.m. seminar in Luce Hall.  

“We think this is so urgent,” Steuer Ingall told Zedillo during the class walk-in. “We wouldn’t come to this class if we didn’t believe urgently that this was a necessary conversation, and we hope, so sincerely, that you can be a voice for change tomorrow.” 

EJC members handed out flyers to students in the seminar describing their condemnation of Citi’s continued investments in the fossil fuel industry. While the flyers were directed toward Zedillo, Steuer Ingall told the News that the group also hoped to move students in the class to “engage in dialogue” with their professor regarding climate change, leaving the classroom community thinking about their capacity to make positive change. 

Upon their arrival to the classroom, Zedillo welcomed conversation with the student protestors, adding that if he had more time he would invite them to sit down in class so that they could engage in further conversation. 

He emphasized the severity of climate change, but did not commit to supporting the Harrington resolution at the shareholder meeting — in fact, he noted that he would not be in attendance. 

“The question is whether, simply by suspending any kind of financing to the oil and gas sectors, you will achieve the desired results,” Zedillo said to the protestors. “I think there has to be a strategy. There has to be a plan. I think financial intermediaries at Citi do have that plan… to disengage without causing dramatic disruptions that will have consequences on economic growth and productivity, on employment.”

Meaningful solutions to the climate crisis, Zedillo explained, will likely incur financial costs in the short-term. He used carbon taxes as an example, explaining that while such a measure would raise the prices of energy and gasoline, these could be necessary expenses. 

“I’m telling people the truth, that there is no such thing as a free, clean environment and free mitigation of climate change,” Zedillo said to those in the room. “All of us have been [making] sacrifices in order to pursue that.”

EJC organizer Adriana Maciel Metal ’22, was unsatisfied with Zedillo’s comments during the class. She called his rhetoric “hypocritical,” as she said if he truly cared about the climate crisis, he would be standing on the side of the EJC.

EJC organizer Moses Goren ’23 was also dissatisfied with Zedillo’s response, saying that the former president seemed to condemn modes of fighting the climate crisis without offering meaningful alternative solutions. 

“So I think if he is to teach this class that is ‘Debating Globalization,’ that should be encouraging students to think critically about these crises, he has to also offer a solution that he thinks is not just pessimistic, that does offer a real chance to avoid this climate annihilation,” Goren said. 

Zedillo told the News that he did not find the students’ presence in the class disruptive, adding that he was “glad to have them explain their message.”

Although Zedillo clarified that he could not speak on Citi’s behalf, he told the News that the group was “trying to do their best” to simultaneously support climate change mitigation policies and serve their purpose as financial intermediaries. 

“I invited students to examine more closely whether other policy instruments are being used adequately and also advocate for the use of those other instruments such as carbon taxes,” Zedillo told the News. “The topics raised by the visiting students actually fit nicely into my seminar’s subject.”

Goren said that members hoped to demonstrate diplomacy and strike up a productive conversation with Zedillo. It is only in the scenario in which Zedillo completely ignored EJC advocacy, Steuer Ingall said, that the group would plan to “go back and yell.”

The class protest marks a departure from EJC advocacy in the past, which has focused more specifically on divestment within Yale.

“This is sort of a divergence from some of our typical EJC actions, which are pretty singularly focused on the management of the Yale endowment today,” Steuer Ingall said. “We’re hoping to think more about other ways in which financial institutions make their wishes felt on campus.”

Zedillo has taught courses on economics and global affairs at Yale since 2002.

LUCY HODGMAN
Lucy Hodgman is the editor-in-chief and president of the News. She previously covered student life and the Yale College Council. Originally from Brooklyn, New York, she is a junior in Grace Hopper majoring in English.
WILLIAM PORAYOUW
William Porayouw covered Woodbridge Hall for the News and previously reported on international strategy at Yale. Originally from Redlands, California, he is an economics and global affairs major in Davenport College.