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2021-02-24 00:00:00
Protect the climate but finance Total?
2021-02-16 00:00:00
Oil and gas financiers are staring down the barrel at $1 trillion in losses: time to rein in support for new pipelines
2021-02-11 00:00:00
Beefing up risk: the exposure of JBS’ financiers to financial, regulatory and reputational risks
2021-01-25 00:00:00
Why should banks support EU mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence?
2020-09-24 12:53:20
Oscislowo open-pit coal mine cancelled
2020-09-08 13:07:41
Strengthened OECD guidance on responsible banking
2020-02-25 10:35:27
JPMorgan Chase Coal and Arctic Policy a step forward but fails to match its climate responsibility as the world’s #1 Fossil Bank
2020-02-18 17:27:23
Civil society groups welcome Royal Bank of Scotland preparing to exit fossil fuels
Connect
2021-02-01 00:00:00
Banking on Thin Ice
2020-11-30 00:00:00
Soft Commitments, Hard Lessons: an analysis of the Soft Commodities Compact
2020-11-24 00:00:00
"Trust Us, We're Equator Banks": Part II
2020-11-18 00:00:00
Crude Risk: Risks to banks and investors from the East African Crude Oil Pipeline
2020-09-16 00:00:00
Principles for Paris-Aligned Financial Institutions: Climate Impact, Fossil Fuels and Deforestation
2020-08-17 00:00:00
"Trust Us, We're Equator Banks": Part I
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The East African Crude Oil Pipeline needs to be stopped and we have a plan to do exactly that. Are you in?
French oil giant Total and the China National Offshore Oil Corporation are on the cusp of building a massive crude oil pipeline right through the heart of Africa – displacing communities, endangering…
Banking on Thin Ice
New report finds ongoing finance for coal, oil and gas companies, with little commitments to phase-out from fossil fuels
Stop Standard Chartered financing coal and other fossil fuels

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Swiss NCP misses the mark on UBS links to mass surveillance of Uighurs

UBS listed as owner of Hikvision shares it buys for its clients, yet Swiss NCP says no business relationship exists
2021-03-03 | BankTrack, OECDWatch
On January 28th the Swiss National Contact Point (NCP) for the OECD Guidelines accepted the specific instance filed by the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) against Swiss Bank UBS related to the bank’s business relationship with Hikvision, a company that is aiding China’s mass surveillance and genocide of  Uighurs. This is the first OECD NCP complaint to focus on a financial institution’s asset management business and passive products. Up until now, the NCP procedure has focused on asset owners’ direct shareholding or banks’ mainstream lending. In its assessment, the Swiss NCP concluded that “a direct link between UBS’s products and services and the alleged human rights violations could not be excluded”. The Swiss acceptance of the case is significant because it represents the first time an NCP has recognized the responsibility banks have for their passive investments through indexed funds.  In recent years, the asset management industry has seen a significant shift towards passive investment strategies, by which funds are typically invested in an index rather than in actively traded shares. Currently, over USD 10 trillion is invested in passively managed funds globally, so the recognition of banks’ responsibility for addressing impacts caused by these investments is important. However, on a second element of the complaint, the Swiss NCP concluded that no business relationship between UBS and Hikvision exists in relation to UBS’s role as custodian for Hikvision…

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Swiss NCP misses the mark on UBS links to mass surveillance of Uighurs

UBS listed as owner of Hikvision shares it buys for its clients, yet Swiss NCP says no business relationship exists
2021-03-03 | BankTrack, OECDWatch
On January 28th the Swiss National Contact Point (NCP) for the OECD Guidelines accepted the specific instance filed by the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) against Swiss Bank UBS related to the bank’s business relationship with Hikvision, a company that is aiding China’s mass surveillance and genocide of  Uighurs. This is the first OECD NCP complaint to focus on a financial institution’s asset management business and passive products. Up until now, the NCP procedure has focused on asset owners’ direct shareholding or banks’ mainstream lending. In its assessment, the Swiss NCP concluded that “a direct link between UBS’s products and services and the alleged human rights violations could not be excluded”. The Swiss acceptance of the case is significant because it represents the first time an NCP has recognized the responsibility banks have for their passive investments through indexed funds.  In recent years, the asset management industry has seen a significant shift towards passive investment strategies, by which funds are typically invested in an index rather than in actively traded shares. Currently, over USD 10 trillion is invested in passively managed funds globally, so the recognition of banks’ responsibility for addressing impacts caused by these investments is important. However, on a second element of the complaint, the Swiss NCP concluded that no business relationship between UBS and Hikvision exists in relation to UBS’s role as custodian for Hikvision…
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Over 260 organisations call on banks not to finance Total’s East African Crude Oil Pipeline

With a final investment decision nearing, African and International organisations warn banks against joining $2.5 billion loan for a “manifestly irresponsible” project • New stopeacop.net campaign website launched.
2021-03-01 | International | BankTrack, 350.org Africa, AFIEGO, Inclusive Development International, IUCN NL
Today 263 community and not-for-profit organisations from around the world urged the CEOs of 25 banks not to participate in loans to fund the construction of the world’s longest heated crude oil pipeline. In an open letter, organisations from 49 countries, including 122 African-based organisations, detail the immense threats that the 1,445-kilometer-long East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) would pose to local communities, water supplies, and biodiversity in Uganda, Tanzania, Democratic Republic of Congo and Kenya. They also warn that the pipeline – proposed by French oil company Total and the China National Offshore Oil Corporation – will fuel climate change by transporting oil that will generate over 34 million tons of carbon emissions each year. The letter to the three banks acting as financial advisors for the project – Standard Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China – and 22 banks that have recently provided finance to Total and CNOOC, comes as speculation mounts that a Final Investment Decision (FID), which would commit Total to mobilize capital for the project, is imminent. Nearly a third of the pipeline will run through the basin of Africa’s largest lake, Lake Victoria – which more than 40 million people depend on for water and food production. It will also cross more than 200 rivers, run through thousands of farms and cut through vital wildlife reserves. The pipeline is expected to cost around $3.5 billion. Of this, about $2.5…
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US bank Citi’s new CEO makes net-zero commitment with net-zero details

2021-03-01 | BankTrack, Rainforest Action Network, Sierra Club
On 1 March, Citi announced a new commitment to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions for its financing by 2050, but put off providing key details, instead promising an initial plan “within the next year.” Citi announced that its net zero plan will include “emissions reduction targets for carbon-intensive sectors that also have low-carbon transition opportunities, including interim emissions targets for 2030 for our Energy and Power portfolios.” Citi has been the world’s third largest banker of fossil fuels in recent years, pouring US$ 188 billion into the sector from 2016-2019. The announcement comes on Jane Fraser’s first day as CEO of the bank, and makes Citi the third major U.S. bank, following Morgan Stanley and Bank of America, to make an explicit commitment to achieve net zero financed emissions by 2050. JPMorgan Chase previously pledged to align its financing with the goals of the Paris Agreement. Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs are now the only two major U.S. banks without a similar commitment. In response, Sierra Club financial advocacy campaign manager Ben Cushing released the following statement: “It’s good to see Citi’s new CEO making big climate commitments on her first day, but today’s announcement is simply an IOU for the real plans and actions that will be needed to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. Despite citing ‘an urgent need for collective action’ in response to the climate crisis, Citi does not provide specifics on how it will get…
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Groundbreaking research reveals the financiers of the coal industry

Today, Urgewald & partners published an analysis of the financiers & investors behind the entire coal industry for the 1st time. One of the shocking results was that banks provide more money to coal than in 2016.
2021-02-25 | urgewald, Reclaim Finance
- US investors hold 58% of institutional investments in the coal industry - Commercial banks providing more money to the coal industry than in 2016 - Japanese banks are top lenders, Chinese banks top underwriters Today, Urgewald, Reclaim Finance, Rainforest Action Network, 350.org Japan and 25 further NGO partners published groundbreaking research on the financiers and investors behind the global coal industry. “This is the first time anyone has attempted to analyze commercial banks’ and institutional investors’ exposure to the entire coal industry. In past years, the scope of our financial research was limited to around 200 coal plant developers. Our new research, however, analyzes financial flows to all 934 companies on the Global Coal Exit List (GCEL),” says Katrin Ganswindt, head of financial research at Urgewald. Top Institutional Investors in the Coal Industry In January 2021, 4,488 institutional investors held investments totaling USD 1.03 trillion in companies operating along the thermal coal value chain. Among the investors covered by the NGOs’ research are pension funds, mutual funds, asset managers, insurance companies, hedge funds, commercial banks, sovereign wealth funds and other types of institutional investors.  The world’s largest institutional investor in the coal industry is the US mutual fund company Vanguard with holdings of almost USD 86 billion. It is closely followed by BlackRock, which holds investments of over USD 84 billion in the coal industry. Together, these…
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Cross-Regional Letter to European Commission on the EU Human Rights Due Diligence Legislation

2021-02-25 | Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS)
In May 2020, European Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders announced that the European Commission will embark on proposing legislation on mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence in 2021, a necessary step for corporate governance and accountability. In light of this, on 18 February 2021, 79 organisations across Africa, the Americas, Asia and Europe have come together and sent a letter to the European Commission, demanding that the proposed  legislation: Ensures corporate respect for human rights and international humanitarian law in conflict-affected areas; Applies to all companies in the European Union (EU), including financial institutions, their operations and relationships abroad; Ensures the protection of Indigenous peoples and the right to self-determination; Adopts a gender-sensitive approach; and, Is compatible with already-existing international norms and relevant developments directed at enhancing corporate accountability, particularly those at the United Nations. The organisations underscore that such legislation is necessary to close the severe gap between corporate-related violations against human rights and the environment and the lack of accountability, especially in conflict-affected and high-risk areas. The letter urges the European Commission to consider relevant UN precedents such as the UN database of businesses involved in illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory; the Panel of Experts report to the UN Security Council regarding the illegal exploitation of natural resources…
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Protect the climate but finance Total?

2021-02-24 | Greenpeace France, Reclaim Finance
It’s a provocative question: can you protect the climate while financing Total? Many will answer in the negative. And yet, while a growing number of French financial actors are committed to achieving carbon neutrality (net-zero) and aligning their activities with the 1.5°C target, none or virtually none has excluded the company from its support. Provocation or simply hypocrisy? This is what a new report published by Reclaim Finance and Greenpeace France entitled “Pipeline of Pollution: Total responsible, Finance complicit?” aims to find out. Given Total’s responsibility for greenhouse gas emissions and climate change at the international level, the way financial players adapt their relationship with Total SE is a good indicator of the sincerity of their climate commitments and the challenges involved in meeting them. Step 1: Evaluating Total on climate The report begins with an overview of Total’s climate commitments. The group is committed to investing massively in renewable energies. There is cause for concern about the role of false solutions such as biomass, but the significant amounts invested there support Total’s communication efforts to appear as a multi-energy company. With this in mind, Total has also announced that it will submit a change of name to TotalEnergies to the vote of its shareholders at the next annual general meeting. But you have to compare them to other figures and that’s where the problem lies: in 2020, Total produced 447 units of fossil fuels…
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Oil and gas financiers are staring down the barrel at $1 trillion in losses: time to rein in support for new pipelines

2021-02-16 | Greig Aitken - Global Energy Monitor
A blog by Greig Aitken, Finance researcher, Global Energy Monitor After four years of climate change denialism at the White House, US President Joe Biden has quickly moved to reinstall reality, and then some. If day one of the new administration duly delivered the widely trailed re-entry of America into the Paris Climate Agreement and the cancellation of the permit for the $9 billion Keystone XL oil pipeline, a week later on January 27 Biden’s 7,500+ word executive order on climate policy landed – with a notable emphasis on ending US support and financing for fossil fuels overseas.   That same day the US’s new climate envoy, former Secretary of State John Kerry, wasted no time in singling out gas as a top priority for global action, telling a virtual meeting of the World Economic Forum: “If we build out huge infrastructure for gas now and continue to use it as the bridge fuel … we’re gonna be stuck with stranded assets in 10 or 20 or 30 years.” Kerry’s flagging of the ‘bridge fuel’ myth to political and business leaders is telling. It’s the gas industry’s big climate lie that methane, more than 25 times as potent as carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere, has a role to play in the clean energy transition. And it’s the dangerous myth, according to research published this month, behind why over 82% of all pipelines currently in development the world over are designed to carry gas. Global Energy Monitor (GEM) has identified a planned…
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