Climate risk is financial risk: A landmark lawsuit challenges retirement fund fiduciaries

At a moment of economic uncertainty and escalating climate disruption, a groundbreaking legal case is putting retirement security at the center of the climate fight. 

A former Cushman & Wakefield employee filed a class action lawsuit against their former employer, one of the world’s largest real estate corporations, alleging its retirement plan fiduciaries breached their duties by failing to protect workers’ savings from material climate-related financial risks. 

The case – Kvek v. Cushman & Wakefield, filed in federal court in Washington state on March 4th, 2026 – could set a precedent that ignoring climate risk isn’t just bad for people and the planet, it’s a failure to manage peoples’ money responsibly under the law. This could shift billions in retirement savings away from underperforming and risky investments into clean energy investments that can help safeguard our future and climate.

For years, Stand.earth has been working to educate and equip workers with public pensions and private retirement funds to advocate for climate safe retirements. This lawsuit marks an escalation of efforts to protect workers across the U.S. and address big polluters.

Climate risk is financial risk

In an era of escalating climate disasters – fires, floods, extreme heat, and drought – retirement savings are increasingly exposed to economic shocks tied directly to climate breakdown. Ignoring these risks puts workers’ financial security in jeopardy.

No matter who you are or how you vote, your retirement should be secure, and this new landmark lawsuit is arguing just that. Retirement savings should be managed to safeguard people’s futures, not endanger it by bankrolling the industries driving the climate crisis. Fiduciaries should ensure that retirement plan options reflect prudent risk management and protect workers’ long-term security. 

At stake is far more than one company’s retirement plan. The outcome could influence how trillions of dollars in workers’ deferred wages are managed – and whether climate risk is finally treated as what it is: financial risk.

Anyone’s retirement may be exposed 

This case is about more than one employer or one industry. Across the retirement accounts of millions of workers, there is the potential for this same pattern to repeat: climate-related financial risks are inadequately addressed in the very funds people depend on for long-term security. That could include your own savings.

Workers in the U.S. have over $12 trillion in retirement savings – money that should secure our future, but is instead being gambled on risky climate-vulnerable companies. 

In 2025 alone, communities around the world experienced 55 separate billion-dollar climate disasters – fires and floods, deadly heat and smoke, drought and smoke – already endangering the savings of millions of workers whose retirement savings are unprepared for the costs of climate disruption. 

Take action

This isn’t just “a lawsuit” – it’s a movement moment. It is a collective effort to protect the financial security of millions of working people, and connect climate accountability to universal concerns about workers’ rights, retirement security, and long-term economic resilience. 

Here is what you can do: 

• Amplify the news of this groundbreaking lawsuit. Share it on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads, TikTok or send it to your friends via email.
• Learn more about the case and how your retirement funds manager could be liable for the same reckless investments.
• Download our advocacy toolkit to find out how you can connect with your retirement plan managers and advocate for your own climate safe retirement.
• Join us March 25 for a legal and movement briefing to understand the lawsuit and the broader implications for protecting all workers’ retirement funds.