Environmental activists held a rally inside Trump Tower in New York City on Tuesday, ahead of an expected decision from the president on whether to leave the Paris climate change agreement.



About 90 people gathered in a public garden on the fifth floor of Donald Trump’s building in midtown Manhattan to encourage the New York City government to divest its pension funds from fossil fuel companies. Organizers from environmental group 350.org said individual states and local councils can still take action on climate change, even in the face of a government that seems ambivalent on the subject.

“We need our governments to act, but we’re not powerless when they don’t,” said May Boeve, executive director at 350.org.

“We’re trying to make a connection between the fact that the Trump administration is run by fossil fuel millionaires, from Rex Tillerson to Scott Pruitt. And there’s an effort to try to get the public and elected officials to break sides with fossil fuel industries and divest.”

Trump is expected to make a decision on whether to remain in the Paris climate agreement later this month. The president has promised to “cancel” the agreement, under which almost 200 countries agreed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but his current thinking is unclear. A meeting of his top advisers on the subject was set to take place on Tuesday but was postponed.

Tuesday’s “teach-in” protest was part of a week of Global Divestment Mobilization organized by a coalition of activist groups. Rallies encouraging governments to divest from the fossil fuel industry were taking place in 46 different countries. In New York City, activists are pushing for comptroller Scott Stringer, who oversees the city’s $175bn pension funds, to divest investments in oil and gas companies like Exxon.

The rally took place in one of two “public gardens” in Trump Tower, which as privately owned public spaces are open to members of the public. It included a quiz on which banks invest in fossil fuels, and a slightly on-the-nose tug-of-war which depicted Stringer being pulled in different directions by oil and gas companies and “the people”.

New York City council member Helen Rosenthal, state senator Liz Krueger and state assemblyman Felix Ortiz are among the elected officials also demanding that the city ditch its investments in fossil fuel industries.

“By fully divesting New York City pension funds from coal, oil and gas, we would take a prudent step toward protecting 1.5 million pension holders, withdraw our support from companies that are driving climate change, and align our financial interests with our goals of moving toward a cleaner, fossil fuel-free energy system,” Rosenthal said.

A spokesman for Stringer said the comptroller did not have the power to unilaterally divest. The city’s $175bn is spread across five different pensions, each of which has its own board of directors who decide where money will be invested.

The rally, organized by 350.org and New York Communities for Change, is part of a series the groups have held in Trump Tower. Trump has not returned to the building, where his wife, Melania, and 11-year-old son Barron have lived since his inauguration in January. The first lady has said she and Barron will move to Washington at the end of the school year.