AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report.

We turn now to Climate Week, which has brought thousands of government leaders, scientists, companies and activists to New York City alongside the United Nations General Assembly. Activists began the week Monday with a direct action shutting down one of the world’s largest funders of fossil fuel expansion. Democracy Now! was outside Citibank’s global headquarters in Manhattan when 31 activists were arrested for blocking the building’s entrance, after the company ignored their repeated requests for a meeting. Many spoke about the devastating impacts of Citibank’s fossil fuel investments on their communities in states like Louisiana and Texas.

PROTESTERS: Hey, Citi, get off it! The planet over profit! Hey, Citi, get off it! The planet over profit! Hey, Citi, get off it! The planet over profit!

POLICE OFFICER: Stay in front. Stay in front.

JONATHAN WESTIN: Jonathan Westin. I’m with Climate Defenders. Citi is financing the entire destruction of the Gulf South. And families from the Gulf South came up here to meet with them today, and Citi refused to meet with them.

MELANIE: My name is Melanie. I work for Strong Economy for All here in New York. We are here to shut it down during Climate Week, because we know a better future is possible. We do not need to be investing in fossil fuels. The time is now for renewable energy, and we are demanding Citibank hear us.

AMY GOODMAN: Are you willing to get arrested for this?

MELANIE: Yes, I am willing to get arrested today, because I believe in a better future than what Citibank is financing every single day.

CHERYL BARNES: I’m Cheryl Barnes. I’m definitely willing to be arrested, but Citibank refuses to meet with us. They are responsible for ecocide and genocide all over the world.

POLICE ANNOUNCEMENT: You may be charged with additional crimes. Since you have refused…

ANNOUNCER: Please welcome Bill McKibben.

BILL McKIBBEN: This is towards the end of this remarkable summer of heat. More than a thousand of us have gone to jail so far this summer. And the reason is because this building behind us. This is the headquarters of the largest funder of fossil fuel expansion on planet Earth. If there is a flood near you, if there is a fire near you, if you can’t grow food anymore where you used to, if you’re having to leave your home because the ocean is rising, if you’re living through some heat wave where the temperature is going to 120 degrees, this building is a big reason why.

PROTESTERS: Off fossil fuels, Citi! Off fossil fuels!

KAMEA OZANE: My name is Kamea Ozane, and I’m traveling here from Southwest Louisiana. I had to came all the way out here just to fight for clean air in my communities. Every day I have to pass by plant industries that gave me really bad headaches and that smell really bad. I don’t want have to do that. I’m only in middle school. I shouldn’t have to worry about what my planet is going to look like tomorrow or in 35 years. Where I live, after every hurricane, we can’t drink the water, because the water is contaminated. Every time we go fishing, we have to throw the fish back, because the fish in the water are contaminated.

The Citibanks keep funding these fossil fuel industries in our communities. They put them in the small Black and Indigenous communities on purpose, because they know that we can’t do anything about that. They put them in poor communities and low-income communities on purpose. This is not OK. This is racist. I’m not even a teenager yet, and I have to fight for my life and many others my age. I shouldn’t have to do this. This is not right.

ANNOUNCER: We will continue to shut down this building until Citibank stops funding fossil fuels. Please welcome Gerry, who came all the way from the Philippines.

GERRY ARANCES: [echoed by the people’s mic] I came here for the Climate Week after five storms that have devastated my country since a heat wave in summer that has devastated 120 provinces and cities in my country with 120 Fahrenheit degrees, which we haven’t experienced historically. This is what Citi is doing to all of us.

KAZI FOUZIA: My name is Kazi Fouzia. In recent time, you see the flooding in Bangladesh. Twenty hundred thousand people are displaced from their home. This is the corporation responsible for the climate disaster. They invest everything to disaster. They invest, destroy our land, our home.

SUE PAGE: My name is Sue Page. I’m from Surfside Beach, Texas. I’m with Better Brazoria. We are on the Gulf Coast of Texas. I’m standing in front of Citibank because there is a company that they help to finance called Enterprise. And what happens is they are going to build two pipe — well, one pipeline through a seaport oil terminal. There’s actually two pipelines proposed going through my area. So, we will be able to shut it down if Citibank would stop funding this endeavor.

AMY GOODMAN: Some of the voices from Monday’s Citibank protest that kicked off Climate Week here in New York City alongside the U.N. General Assembly. Today, President Biden is addressing the U.N. General Assembly and will be speaking at another event about his climate accomplishments.