Banks| Policies| Dodgy Deals| Campaigns
About us| Blog| Publications| Successes| Contact us| Donate
About BankTrack
Visit us
Organisation
Our team
Our board
Guiding principles
Team up with us
Jobs at BankTrack
Our annual reports
Funding and finances
History
BankTrack in the media
Our privacy policy
Donate
2023-01-23 00:00:00
Berta Cáceres: new rules for banks could help stop defender killings
2023-01-16 00:00:00
In the balance: Why European due diligence legislation must cover financial services
2022-12-08 00:00:00
Exposed: Western banks funding Qatar’s carbon bombs
2022-12-08 00:00:00
Right-wing attack on sustainable finance is the latest form of climate denial
2022-12-14 11:08:26
HSBC announces it will no longer finance new oil and gas fields
2022-10-13 15:56:39
More major banks and insurers refuse to support EACOP
2022-09-16 10:38:48
European Parliament passes emergency resolution against human rights violations & environmental threats linked to EACOP
2022-06-27 09:49:16
Crédit Agricole takes first step to phase out from the oil and gas sector
Connect
2022-11-22 00:00:00
Banking on Thin Ice: Two years in the heat
2022-11-17 00:00:00
BankTrack Global Human Rights Benchmark 2022
2022-10-21 00:00:00
Burning forests in the name of clean energy? How banks are failing to exclude the harmful wood biomass industry from finance
2022-06-28 00:00:00
The East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP): Finance Risk Update No. 3
2022-04-05 00:00:00
The BankTrack Human Rights Benchmark Asia
2022-03-30 00:00:00
Banking on Climate Chaos 2022
See all publications
Browse
Home
Banks
Policies
Dodgy Deals
Campaigns
About
About BankTrack
Donate
Contact BankTrack
Publications
Victories
Follow Us
News
BankTrack blog
Facebook
Twitter Fossil Banks No Thanks Twitter Fossil Banks No Thanks Instagram
Affiliate Websites
Fossil Banks No Thanks
StopEACOP
Forests & Finance
Banks & Biodiversity
Drop JBS
Bank of Coal
Don't Buy into Occupation
Don't Bank On It!
The fossil fuel industry cannot exist without banks. That’s why we need you to join the open letter to the CEOs of the UK’s Big 5 high street banks and tell them to stop financing fossil fuel expansion.…
Demand JPMorgan Chase defund Formosa Plastics!
Send a message to JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon
New report: BankTrack Human Rights Benchmark
Slow progress and lack of action to address key gaps on reporting and remedy

LATEST NEWS

blog
external news
our news

Rabobank called on to stop billions of dollars in finance to polluting industrial meat and dairy companies

2023-01-31 | BankTrack, Feedback EU, Feedback Global, World Animal Protection
New research published today has found that between 2015-21, Dutch multinational banking and financial services company Rabobank, provided billions of dollars in finance to 18 of the world’s most environmentally destructive industrial livestock companies despite having a commitment to the goals of the Paris Agreement, the Dutch Climate Agreement and Commitment to Sustainable Agriculture and Forests. A group of organisations, including Feedback EU, Feedback Global, World Animal Protection and BankTrack have called on Rabobank to urgently stop financing big livestock companies. In a joint-letter to the bank’s CEO, the group highlights that continued exposure to large scale industrial livestock companies will damage Rabobank’s reputation and business, including risks of lost revenue and stranded assets. The research finds that between 2015-21 Rabobank provided extensive financial services to five of the world’s biggest emitting industrial livestock companies – JBS, Marfrig, Tyson Foods, Dairy Farmers of America and Fonterra, including $1.941 billion in corporate loans, underwriting $1.221 billion million in bond issuances and providing revolving credit facilities. These ‘Big 5’ generated an estimated 550.8 million tonnes of greenhouse gases (GWP100) in 2021, together emitting nearly as much as the total emissions of the Netherlands and the UK combined. Rabobank also provided financial services to Royal Friesland Campina and Vion Food Group. In 2016, these two companies together emitted…

blog
external news
our news

Rabobank called on to stop billions of dollars in finance to polluting industrial meat and dairy companies

2023-01-31 | BankTrack, Feedback EU, Feedback Global, World Animal Protection
New research published today has found that between 2015-21, Dutch multinational banking and financial services company Rabobank, provided billions of dollars in finance to 18 of the world’s most environmentally destructive industrial livestock companies despite having a commitment to the goals of the Paris Agreement, the Dutch Climate Agreement and Commitment to Sustainable Agriculture and Forests. A group of organisations, including Feedback EU, Feedback Global, World Animal Protection and BankTrack have called on Rabobank to urgently stop financing big livestock companies. In a joint-letter to the bank’s CEO, the group highlights that continued exposure to large scale industrial livestock companies will damage Rabobank’s reputation and business, including risks of lost revenue and stranded assets. The research finds that between 2015-21 Rabobank provided extensive financial services to five of the world’s biggest emitting industrial livestock companies – JBS, Marfrig, Tyson Foods, Dairy Farmers of America and Fonterra, including $1.941 billion in corporate loans, underwriting $1.221 billion million in bond issuances and providing revolving credit facilities. These ‘Big 5’ generated an estimated 550.8 million tonnes of greenhouse gases (GWP100) in 2021, together emitting nearly as much as the total emissions of the Netherlands and the UK combined. Rabobank also provided financial services to Royal Friesland Campina and Vion Food Group. In 2016, these two companies together emitted…
blog
external news
our news

Just 7% of global banks' energy financing goes to renewables, new data shows

Major global banks are standing in the way of climate targets with new data showing just 7% of their financing for energy companies went to renewables between 2016 and 2022
2023-01-24 | BankTrack, Fair Finance International, Rainforest Action Network, Sierra Club, The Sunrise Project
The data, produced for Sierra Club, Fair Finance International, BankTrack and Rainforest Action Network, indicates major failings by financial institutions to help meet global commitments on net zero emissions by 2050 since it shows shockingly low financial support through loans and bond underwriting for clean energy. It calls into question pledges from the industry-led Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ), whose commissioned research shows low carbon energy investments need to account for at least 80% of energy investments compared to fossil fuels (4:1) by 2030 to reach climate goals. However, no bank looks set to reach this very minimum requirement. Across the world, the picture is dismal: at US$ 181 billion Citi and JP Morgan Chase each pumped the most into the energy companies examined between 2016 and 2022 but just 2% went to renewables. Similarly, only 2% of Barclays’ financing of the energy companies examined went to renewables. Royal Bank of Canada is at just 1%, Mizuho 4% and HSBC 5%. The figure stands at 7% for French bank BNP Paribas.  Bank loans and bond underwriting for renewables went from 7% in 2016 of the overall financing of the energy companies examined to a high of 10% in 2021 but virtually stagnated between these years, rather than showing any positive trend. The total amounts of clean energy financing in these years remained abysmally low: $23.2 billion in 2016 and US$ 34.5 billion in 2021. Overall the 60 banks saw US$ 2.5 trillion in loans and bond underwriting provided to the companies…
blog
external news
our news

Berta Cáceres: new rules for banks could help stop defender killings

2023-01-23 | Global Witness
In 2016, the Honduran environmental activist Berta Cáceres was killed trying to protect her ancestral lands against the Agua Zarca hydroelectric project, bankrolled by European financial institutions. The killing provoked international condemnation. Last year, the European Union (EU) proposed a law that could stop companies profiting from projects linked to the repression and murder of environmental defenders. However, European countries are backing a version of the law that would let investors off the hook and allow them to keep funding developments that communities strongly oppose, like Agua Zarca. Approved after the 2009 coup d’état in Honduras, the Agua Zarca dam was part of a series of environmentally destructive megaprojects that would affect indigenous groups. The Honduran government authorized the dam without consulting the Lenca community, who opposed the project as it infringes on a sacred river. Climate Diplomacy reports that the dam also threatened to drain local water supply, damage the environment and destroy local communities’ livelihoods. European investors backed the project despite a well-documented murder connected to it, which had led others to pull out. It was initially financed by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and carried out jointly by the Honduran Company Desarrollos Energéticos SA (DESA) and Sinohydro, a Chinese state-owned company and the world’s largest dam developer. The project came to a halt in 2013 after Tomás García,…
blog
external news
our news

Throwing fuel on the fire: GFANZ members provide billions in finance for fossil fuel expansion

2023-01-17 | Paris, France /Nijmegen, Netherlands | BankTrack, Reclaim Finance
After committing to net zero by joining the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ), financial institutions, including HSBC and LGIM have continued pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into the companies developing fossil fuels, according to a new report published today by a group of NGOs, including Reclaim Finance and BankTrack, and endorsed by Make My Money Matter (1). As business and finance leaders meet in Davos for the World Economic Forum, the NGOs call on GFANZ’s sectoral alliances to insist their members stop supporting fossil fuel expansion. If they are serious about meeting their commitment to reach net zero by 2050 following a 1.5°C pathway, action is needed now to align in the short term with this science-based climate imperative. The report analyzes support for the world’s largest fossil fuel developers from the financial institutions who are members of the sectoral alliances (2). It finds that:  Since joining the alliance, 56 of the biggest banks in the Net-Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA) have provided US$270 billion to 102 major fossil fuel expanders, via 134 loans and 215 underwriting transactions;  58 of the largest members of the Net Zero Asset Managers initiative (NZAM) held at least US$847 billion of stocks and bonds in 201 major fossil fuel developers as of September 2022;  Only a handful of the financial institutions have adopted policies that meaningfully restrict finance to new fossil fuel projects and companies developing new fossil supply projects since joining…
blog
external news
our news

New report reveals the 40 financial institutions funding the world's climate-changing methane problem

A new report by Planet Tracker and Changing Markets reveals the top financial institutions funding the world’s biggest methane producers, and the role they can play in turning the tide on global heating.
2023-01-17 | London | Changing Markets, Planet Tracker
A new report from financial think tank Planet Tracker and the Changing Markets Foundation has uncovered the 40 financial institutions responsible for funding a methane footprint that could exceed 500 Mt CO2e – nearly as big as the CO2 emissions of Saudi Arabia.(1) Hot Money names the 20 investors and 20 banks currently financing the methane-generating activities of fifteen leading global meat and dairy companies, identified in terms of equity ownership, bond ownership and bank funding. All were found to have weak or non-existent policies for reducing methane emissions, with a particular gap regarding livestock agriculture – the single largest source of agri-methane. This conflicts with the Global Methane Pledge signed by all but one of the institutions’ home countries. The aggregate agri-methane footprint attributable to the top 20 equity investors is 68 Mt CO2e – more than the CO2 emissions of Austria. Vanguard takes first place, with Blackrock second and State Street third. For banks, the footprint is roughly three times as large (c. 200 Mt CO2e) – almost equivalent to the CO2 emissions of countries like Spain. Because of its focus on meat, Morgan Stanley takes the top slot (40 Mt CO2e), followed by JP Morgan (31 Mt CO2e) and HSBC (19 Mt CO2e). The estimated methane footprint of the banks could easily be higher – a harsher estimation method would suggest a footprint for the banks of over 430 Mt CO2e – equivalent to Brazil’s annual CO2 emissions.…
blog
external news
our news

In the balance: Why European due diligence legislation must cover financial services

2023-01-16 | Giulia Barbos – BankTrack
Blog by Giulia Barbos, Human Rights Campaigner and Policy Researcher at BankTrack. Originally published on the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre, as part of the Towards Mandatory Human Rights Due Diligence blog series. Recent progress on the European Union’s Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive means ‘CSDDD’ – or ‘CS-triple-D’ – is the acronym on everyone’s lips in the business and human rights world. This proposed mandatory environmental and human rights due diligence legislation has the potential to be a game-changer. However, recent moves from the EU Council to make inclusion of financial services optional for member states risk undermining its impact, given both the scale of the sector’s impacts and the state of banks’ current human rights commitments. The latest Global Human Rights Benchmark from BankTrack, published in November 2022, revealed the world’s largest commercial banks are still consistently failing to fully implement their human rights responsibilities as set out in the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs). The Benchmark, BankTrack’s fourth assessment of the sector’s human rights performance, underlines the need for legislation which sets a level playing field for banks; is in line with the UNGPs; and extends to the whole ‘value chain’ - including the impacts of bank finance. Overall, the Benchmark found none of the 50 banks assessed…
blog
external news
our news

Banking on bailouts

Sizing the global costs when the fossil fuel bubble bursts
2023-01-11 | One-for-One campaign
Republished from the original news item on the One-for-One-campaign website here. Academics and economists have raised the alarm for many years about the growing risk of a fossil fuel stranded asset bubble. This means investments in oil, gas or coal exploration and extraction projects could suddenly have their value wiped out as demand drops as a result of climate change mitigation policies, changes in consumer preferences, and technology developments. A sudden drop in the value of fossil fuel assets could cause borrowers to default on their debts, in turn leaving banks and insurers insolvent and causing knock-on effects across the financial markets. Despite the clear threat of climate change and the urgent necessity of meeting net zero targets, banks and insurers around the world continue to finance new fossil fuel projects, through lending, insurance, and both direct and indirect investment. While efforts have been made to shore up the stability of the global financial system since the 2008 global financial crisis, regulators are lagging behind in implementing rules that adequately mitigate the risks of climate change and net zero on banks and insurers. Under the One-for-One campaign’s policy demands a 1,250% risk weighting for capital requirements should be applied all financing of new fossil fuel exploration and extraction projects such that for every dollar invested in fossil fuels, financial institutions have one dollar to cover the risk. The campaign…
More news...
Get BankTrack updates delivered to your inbox
Latest Tweets
Learn more about their net zero targets on our website: https://t.co/TlHml3rImx
2023-01-31
These targets: ❌ Do not cover capital markets (underwriting) ❌ Do not cover the whole sector (although the majority is covered)
2023-01-31
Notice Board
Update Alerts
On 2023-02-01 15:23:04 we updated the Tanjung Jati-B 2 (TJB2) coal power plant project page.
On 2023-02-01 14:19:26 we updated the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) project page.
On 2023-02-01 12:52:45 we updated the Payra Port Coal Terminal project page.
External News
Citi, BofA lead Wall Street banks funding fossil-fuel expansion
2023-01-17 00:00:00
|
Bloomberg
Banks still investing heavily in fossil fuels despite net zero pledges – study
2023-01-17 00:00:00
|
The Guardian
HSBC's secretive loan to a coal company bulldozing a village
2023-01-11 00:00:00
|
The Bureau of Investigative Journalism
Base Resources presses Rajoelina for green light to mine Toliara Sands
2023-01-06 00:00:00
|
Africa Intelligence
Browse
Home
Banks
Policies
Dodgy Deals
Campaigns
About
About BankTrack
Donate
Contact BankTrack
Publications
Victories
Follow Us
News
BankTrack blog
Facebook
Twitter Fossil Banks No Thanks Twitter Fossil Banks No Thanks Instagram
Affiliate Websites
Fossil Banks No Thanks
StopEACOP
Forests & Finance
Banks & Biodiversity
Drop JBS
Bank of Coal
Don't Buy into Occupation
Vismarkt 15
6511 VJ Nijmegen
The Netherlands

Tel: +31 24 324 9220
Contact@banktrack.org
©2016 BankTrack                Webdesign by BankTrack and EASYmind
BankTrack is a registered charity in the Netherlands (ANBI) - RSIN 813874658
Find our privacy policy here

Stay up to date

Sign up now for all BankTrack's news


Make a comment

Your comment will be reviewed, before being posted