NEW YORK: Against a backdrop of intensifying climate protests targeting Wall Street, the heavyweights of US finance are pushing back against what they characterise as a fundamentally flawed debate.

For more than a month now, scores of activists have mounted near-daily protests outside the Manhattan headquarters of Citigroup Inc, with video footage showing tense scenes and a memo to staff urging employees to stay cool.

The campaign - dubbed “Summer of Heat” - promises a steady escalation of disruptions and says its ultimate goal is to “shut down Wall Street”.

Far from caving in to such pressure, Wall Street is coalescing around a clear message: Private money will only invest in the clean-energy transition to the extent that it makes economic sense.

“Finance has a big, big role to play,” said Emmanuel Lagarrigue, a partner at KKR & Co who’s also its co-head of climate. But, “if you really want this to succeed” so that private capital moves away from fossil fuels and into greener projects, “it has to create returns at the same time as it decarbonises. It’s not either or, it’s both”.

Ultimately, “if we subsidise our way through the transition, it’s going to stall at some point,” he said in an interview.

Versions of the same message are being repeated across the global finance industry. KKR co-founder Henry Kravis said last month that climate activists who “would like to push a button and have no hydrocarbons” simply “don’t understand the facts”. Barclays Plc chief executive officer C.S. Venkatakrishnan has said the world “can’t go cold turkey” on oil and gas.

At JPMorgan Chase & Co, chief executive officer Jamie Dimon has called it “wrong” and “enormously naïve” to expect fossil-fuel projects be dropped, while Goldman Sachs Group Inc chief executive David Solomon has made clear that oil and gas remain a “hugely important” sector for his bank.

On the other side of the climate debate, activists warn that the planet is reaching dangerous tipping points as rising emissions trigger increasingly deadly floods, wildfires and droughts. Continued bankrolling of the fossil fuels that directly add to those emissions is contributing to a climate catastrophe, they say.

To underline their position, organisers of the “Summer of Heat” campaign have added slogans such as “hot people hate Wall Street” and “eat the rich” to their website.

There’s so far little to indicate that the two sides are anywhere close to finding common ground.

Earlier this month, Citigroup agreed to hold a call with the organisers of the climate protests targeting its Manhattan office. It was the first meeting since the campaign started on June 10.

The encounter, which lasted a little over an hour, ended in a stalemate punctuated by moments of acrimony, according to Alec Connon, one of the main organisers of the protests. He and his fellow activists left determined to continue their campaign against Citigroup for the rest of the summer, Connon said.

Among Citigroup representatives on the call was its chief sustainability officer, Val Smith, according to a list provided by protest organisers.

In an emailed response to a request for comment, Smith said Citigroup has a “long-standing record of fostering open dialogue and reaching constructive solutions with a range of stakeholders, including shareholders and government officials.”

 - Bloomberg