Japanese corporations have faced a record number of shareholders backing proposals calling for greater action and transparency on meeting net-zero carbon emissions targets. Today, and over the past week, shareholders representing USD 22 billion (JPY 3 trillion) investment in these corporations have put four of Japan’s largest companies in the spotlight on climate-risk management – Mitsubishi Corporation, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (SMBC Group), and two utilities Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings (TEPCO) and Chubu Electric Power Co who jointly own JERA, the largest thermal power generator in Japan. The shareholders include civil society organisations or their representatives, including 350.org Japan, Friends of the Earth Japan, Kiko Network, Market Forces and Rainforest Action Network. The votes demonstrate that the tide has turned for companies failing to align their business practices with the growing risks due to the climate crisis. There is a strong momentum of institutional investors and shareholders who are demanding action to counter these grave threats. Mitsubishi Corporation “With its significant investments in the polluting and risky LNG sector, Mitsubishi Corporation has been betting shareholder capital against the clean energy transition it claims to support. On proposals 5 and 6, investors representing 1.2 trillion and 960 billion yen investments respectively, have made a clear directive to Mitsubishi that before the company moves forward with any new LNG plans, the company must…

Bertha Zúniga Cáceres today filed a criminal complaint with the Public Prosecutor's Office, against the Dutch development bank FMO. The daughter of the Goldman Environmental Prize Winner Berta Cáceres Flores, who was murdered in March 2016, requests the Public Prosecutor to launch a criminal investigation into the complicity of FMO and its executives in violence, corruption, misappropriation of funds and money laundering in the context of the development of the Agua Zarca dam in Honduras. Murder of Berta Cáceres and role of state bank FMO Between February 2014 and March 2016, the Dutch state bank FMO lent millions to a Honduran construction company, whose former CEO, David Castillo, was sentenced to 22 years in prison in June 2022 for his role in the murder of human rights activist Berta Cáceres. She opposed the construction of a hydroelectric plant on indigenous land, for which the funding was intended. Cáceres Flores' daughter, Bertha Zúniga Cáceres, is in the Netherlands this week to file a criminal complaint against FMO. She claims that FMO continued to financially support the construction company DESA despite repeated warnings from outside and that a significant part of the development funding for the project was siphoned off to third parties. Zúniga Cáceres is represented in the Netherlands by law firm Global Justice Association (GJA) in Amsterdam. Ignoring warning signs Zúniga Cáceres: “At the time of the FMO financing, my…

Today the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), one of the three financial advisors of the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP), among other fossil fuel projects, is holding its Annual General Meeting (AGM), where shareholders will be making important decisions regarding the financial institution’s policies and investment plans. In preceding weeks, under the rallying calls #StopEACOP and #GoCleanICBC, 350.org, the StopEACOP coalition and partners have led a campaign to pressure the bank to cease financing fossil fuel developments. While China pledged last year that it would no longer fund new coal projects overseas, this commitment excludes communities impacted by ICBC-funded coal plants currently in operation, and omits any commitments regarding the financing of oil and gas projects overseas. There is no room for any new fossil fuel projects anywhere in the world. Twenty other financial institutions have already pulled out of EACOP due to the undeniable negative impacts the project would impose on communities’ health, human rights, and environment. To drive this message home to ICBC, activists took photos in front of ICBC offices around the world, and showed their solidarity with people affected by EACOP and other oil projects in Uganda by delivering a petition signed by 2,591 project affected people. There was also an online action demanding the bank switch from being a funder of dirty energy and instead to fulfill its potential to become a global leader in financing the just transition to renewable…

New Global Witness investigation reveals JBS sourced cattle from 144 ranches in the Amazon state of Pará that contained over 10,000 football pitches of illegal Amazon clearance, contrary to its legal no deforestation obligations JBS also failed to monitor a further 1,600 ranches further up its supply chain with 57,000 football pitches of deforestation Leather from there was exported to Italian manufacturer Gruppo Mastrotto, which supplies well-known brands like Volkswagen, Toyota and Ikea UK supermarkets like Sainsbury’s, Iceland and Asda stocked products with JBS corned beef in February 2022, while Morrisons dropped the stock when approached by Global Witness HSBC, Barclays, Santander, Deutsche Bank, BlackRock and JP Morgan are among the major financial institutions still backing JBS to the tune of almost $1bn in shareholdings in spite of its myriad failings on deforestation Giant meat trader JBS is still sourcing cattle from ranchers responsible for widespread illegal rainforest destruction and human rights abuses in the Brazilian Amazon, Global Witness reveals today. Our investigation shows that JBS’s tainted leather from its problematic Pará operations ended up in the warehouses of well-known Italian leather company Gruppo Mastrotto, which supplies to major global car manufacturers and furniture-makers. UK supermarkets also continue sourcing corned beef from JBS even as they previously pledged to drop some of its products,…

As part of its “Ambitions 2025” plan presented this morning (1), Crédit Agricole announced decarbonisation targets for the automobile and oil and gas sectors. The measures announced are a first step towards phasing out the oil and gas sector, but will not be enough to allow Crédit Agricole to fully contribute to the objective of limiting global warming to 1.5°C. The group has already announced that it will adopt additional measures in the near future in line with the recommendations of the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ). Reclaim Finance welcomes this announcement and calls on Crédit Agricole to follow through by announcing the end of its support for oil and gas expansion by the end of 2022. In addition to measures on the automobile sector, Crédit Agricole announced a target to reduce CO2 emissions from oil and gas financing by 30% in absolute terms between 2020 and 2030 (1). This follows from its commitment, through the Net-Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA) and the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ), to align its portfolio with the objective of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 in order to limit global warming to 1.5°C (2). Crédit Agricole announces that it will publish a new oil and gas policy in 2022 and 2023 to ensure that these targets are met, in line with the recommendations of the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero. “We welcome Credit Agricole’s announcement which acknowledges for the first time the need to phase out oil…

The United Nation’s (UN) Race to Zero Campaign, an initiative of the UN climate convention, has updated and strengthened the criteria that must be followed by its more than ten thousand members. The new criteria explicitly mention for the first time the need for “phasing down and out all unabated fossil fuels as part of a global just transition” and require Race to Zero members to “restrict the development, financing, and facilitation of new fossil assets”. The UN “climate champions” who lead the Race to Zero have urged all its members to comply with these criteria within one year or risk being removed from the race. Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ) must now pick up the gauntlet and ensure that all its members align with the new Race to Zero targets and expectations. The Race to Zero’s (1) newly strengthened and expanded criteria are the product of a five-month long participative process involving more than 200 experts from the worlds of science, academia, business, finance, and civil society. The experts’ recommendations were synthesized by the Race to Zero’s Expert Panel Review Group and received final approval from the leaders of the Race to the Zero, the UN’s “High-Level Climate Champions”, Nigel Topping and Dr Mahmoud Mohieldin. New and stronger expectations to slash emissions and phase down fossil fuels The Race to Zero criteria are divided into “Starting Line” criteria, which are the minimum requirements…

 The Race to Zero Campaign, an initiative of the UN climate convention, has released an updated set of criteria for its members today. The new criteria reiterate that members — which include all the investors, banks and insurers in the Glasgow Financial Alliance on Net Zero (GFANZ) — must commit to a “fair share” of the 50% cut in global CO2 emissions that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says is needed by 2030 for global warming to stay under 1.5°C. The need to slash emissions 50% by 2030 was included in the previous Race to Zero criteria. The new criteria, however, include much more detail on what will be needed to achieve this reduction, in particular with regard to fossil fuels, which despite being overwhelmingly the main contributor to global warming were not mentioned in the previous criteria. The key part of the Race to Zero is the “Starting Line” criteria, which are the minimum commitments that its members must make. Among the new additions to these Starting Line criteria are: “halting deforestation and phasing down and out all unabated fossil fuels as part of a global just transition” (Starting Line criteria, “Pledge”);  members “must restrict the development, financing, and facilitation of new fossil assets.” The criteria stress that “this includes no new coal projects” (Interpretation Guide, “Pledge”, 5.b); financial institutions must include in their targets…