A media report in Germany confirmed publicly this week that Deutsche Bank has withdrawn from its involvement in a bond issue for climate-wrecking Whitehaven Coal, following a concerted people-powered campaign coordinated by Market Forces.  Business media outlet Handelsblatt reported on Wednesday that: “According to information from financial circles, the investment bankers at Deutsche Bank tried to get a mandate for the placement of [Whitehaven Coal’s] bond last year… Deutsche Bank committees finally stopped the in-house investment bankers’ advance, according to financial circles.” Deutsche Bank’s decision to walk away from Whitehaven’s bond issue is a huge win for our campaign to stop this dirty coal corporation building three new or expanded coal mines. Whitehaven’s proposed new or expanded mines are totally out of step with what is required to limit global warming to 1.5ºC or achieve net zero emissions by 2050. Numerous publications have highlighted that achieving these goals means ceasing all new coal projects and rapidly phasing out existing coal supply. The campaign to get Deutsche Bank to walk away Deutsche Bank’s withdrawal from Whitehaven’s bond issue follows a concerted public campaign by Market Forces and other community and civil society groups in Australia and Germany. Our campaign kicked off in October 2021, after financial news service Debtwire reported Deutsche Bank had organised a “non-deal roadshow” for Whitehaven, and intended…

1. Bonds are a critical source of finance for coal, oil and gas companies Since the Paris climate talks in 2015, US$ 2 trillion oil and gas bonds have been issued. That’s half of the total in circulation. More than US$ 600 billion is set to mature after 2030, according to Greenwatch. Coal companies with the biggest expansion plans raise 2.5x more capital through bond issuance than through bank loans, and bonds have become the single largest source of financial support for coal in China and India, according to Sunrise Project analysis of the Global Coal Exit List and data from company financial statements. Altogether, the “Dirty 30” – a list – of 30 of the world's top expansionary fossil fuel companies who are using the bond market to finance new coal, oil and gas projects and includes some of the most well-known fossil fuel companies worldwide such as Exxon, TotalEnergies, Shell, BP, Chevron, Saudi Aramco, and Adani – compiled currently by the Toxic Bonds initiative, have more than $491 billion (nearly half a trillion) in total EU/USD bonds that are outstanding. This number does not include bond issuances in local currency, which would make the amount much larger! “As bank lending for coal has tightened, the bond market remains a safe haven for fossil fuel companies to fund expansion. Dirty energy companies are using the corporate bond market as the back door to secure large amounts of cash for expansion projects.  This has so far received too little scrutiny,”…

The coalition to #StopEACOP celebrates this week’s news that five banks including Deutsche Bank, Citi, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Morgan Stanley have confirmed they will not join the project loan to finance the EACOP. They are joined by the insurer Beazley Group and the Italian export credit agency SACE. This takes the number of banks that want nothing to do with the EACOP project loan to 20 and the number of insurers to eight. The list of banks rejecting the project includes seven of Total’s ten largest lenders. If TotalEnergies was planning to ask for public finance on the pipeline, they will also have to look elsewhere. This week the Italian Export Credit Agency (ECA) SACE  turned down an application to support the project. ECAs from the UK and Germany have also ruled out support for EACOP, while French President Emmanuel Macron told activists last week that he would stop any remaining public finance to EACOP. 10942 dominika.jpg center Fridays for Future activist Dominika Lasota challenges Emmanuel Macron over EACOP, May 2022. Photo: Dominika Lasota / Twitter The news of the US banks’ rejection of the EACOP project loan came as the Financial Times revealed, together with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism,  Marsh McLennan is arranging the insurance coverage for EACOP, despite protests from more than 100 of its staff citing the “disastrous consequences” for the climate and the company’s reputation. Should the pipeline be completed, it will pump up to 34 million of carbon…

Financial news sources confirmed last week that Standard Chartered and Barclays have funded Adani Enterprises, the Adani Group subsidiary pursuing several new thermal coal mining projects, including the disastrous Carmichael mine in Australia. The US$ 250m debt facility provided by the two UK banks has an option to raise an additional US$ 200m. The deal closed on the 9th of May.  The loan was made to Adani Airport Holdings Ltd (AAHL), a wholly owned subsidiary of Adani Enterprises. As money is fungible, any financing of any Adani Group entity frees up capital which Adani can channel to the Carmichael coal mine, which is funded entirely with internal Adani Group funds. This is especially true for Adani Enterprises, the parent company of Bravus Mining and Resources (formerly Adani Mining) which is the subsidiary building, owning and operating the mine and associated rail line. Barclays and Standard Chartered have both publicly promised not to fund Carmichael (see quotes below). While neither bank has loaned directly to the Carmichael coal project, their financing of the Adani Group more broadly is a breach of that promise, as the funds they are helping Adani raise could be indirectly funding the new coal mine by freeing up untied capital. “Barclays has no plans to participate in financing the Abbot Point development or its associated mine/rail infrastructure” – Barclays “Both parties [Standard Chartered and Adani] have agreed to end the bank’s role in the Carmichael project…We…

The Covid 19 pandemic and Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine overshadow, to some extent, long-standing human rights violations and environmental destruction by international corporations, for which banks and life insurers in Germany also share responsibility. Eyes closed, costs down, profits up. A multitude of companies still acts according to this motto. Their poor labor, safety and environmental standards repeatedly lead to fatal accidents, environmental disasters and serious human rights violations. This is also shown in the report Dirty Profits 9: How much Pain for Corporate Gain?, published today by the Berlin-based non-governmental organization Facing Finance. These corporate violations of standards apparently do not stop financial service providers from promoting or investing in harmful business models with their loans. While more and more financial institutions point to their environmental and social financing and investment policies and assure that they respond to corporate incidents and violations, all too often these claims do not stand up to independent scrutiny, as evidenced by the Dirty Profits 9 report.  According to the report, banks operating in Germany did not shy away from financing even the most irresponsible companies in the past four years, sometimes worth billions of euros, or, along with life insurers, from investing in their violations of norms. “Despite massive human rights and environmental violations, financial institutions operating in Germany continue to finance the respective…

On May 13, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (SMBC Group) announced “Strengthening Efforts against Climate Change” and “Opinion of SMFG's Board of Directors on Shareholder Proposals”. In April 2022, environmental NGOs submitted shareholder proposals calling for SMBC Group to strengthen its climate change measures. The NGOs have been engaging with the company for several years. Although its strengthened policy is the result of these efforts, it is still insufficient to meet the 1.5 ℃ target of the Paris Agreement. We will continue to ask other shareholders to support our proposals for strengthening the company's management of climate-related risks.  Eri Watanabe, Senior Campaigner of 350.org Japan, said: "We welcome some progress made in the recent revised policy by SMBC Group in response to previous dialogues and the shareholder proposals. However, the new policy is not seen as Paris aligned and is still far behind its overseas peers. 2030 targets for the power sector Ending support for new oil and gas as called for in IEA's Net Zero Emissions scenario is missing, and loopholes in its coal sector policies remain. Through continuing. shareholder proposals, we will encourage the company to mitigate the climate-related risks and strengthen its climate goals and measures." In addition to revising its policy, SMBC Group has also announced a statement against NGOs' and individual shareholders' shareholder proposals related to climate change. Below is our response…