While the latest IPCC and UN Emissions Gap reports both issue stark warnings on the need for an accelerated phase-out of coal power, the global coal plant fleet is still expanding. At today’s press conference during the UN Climate Summit in Katowice, Urgewald, BankTrack and 26 NGO partners released new research identifying the banks and investors backing a frightening pipeline of new coal projects.   “In the 3 years since the Paris Climate Agreement was signed, coal-fired capacity has grown by over 92,000 MW, and coal plants totaling…

Banks endorsing the draft “Principles for Responsible Banking” (PRB) - launched today in Paris at the UNEP Finance Initiative Global Roundtable - should rapidly back this up by making concrete commitments that ensure the PRBs deliver on their ambition to bring real change in how banks conduct their business, according to BankTrack. This requires at minimum that all PRB endorsing banks commit to immediately end all financial support for new fossil fuel projects and develop a phase-out plan for their existing fossil fuel portfolios.[1] Banks…

In a report published today, Friends of the Earth France has called on French banks to immediately review their coal policies and introduce exclusions for companies developing new projects in this sector. The NGO has criticised the weakness of the current commitments of BNP Paribas, Société Générale, Crédit Agricole and Natixis which, since 2016, have provided more than EUR 10 billion in financing to companies which are gambling against compliance with the Paris Agreement on climate change. This figure represents…

In-depth investigations into the Korean-Indonesian conglomerate Korindo Group have produced two reports documenting widespread evidence of illegality, environmental destruction and community rights violations across the company’s operations. Korindo’s expansion into Indonesia’s frontier forests has involved primary forest clearance, intentional burning, land grabbing and police harassment and arbitrary arrest of local people, says the damning report titled Perilous: Korindo, Land Grabbing and Banks, issued today by Rainforest…