LATEST NEWS

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

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…
blog
external news
our news

COP15 greenwashing alert: Germany and Norway pledge 30 million euro to controversial corporate-headed nature reporting initiative at UN Biodiversity Summit

Civil society groups outraged funding will be handed to wealthy corporate initiative while those doing most to safeguard nature can’t secure sufficient funds.
2022-12-15 | Montreal, Canada | Rainforest Action Network
*Newly released TNFD explainer video available here A little known market based initiative known as the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) may not officially be part of the negotiations between nations, but the topic has been saturating panel events and side discussions throughout the UN Biodiversity Summit underway in Montreal right now. This profile has been further heightened with the announcement today that Germany and Norway have pledged 30 Million Euro to the TNFD. Biodiversity advocates are alarmed at the sudden prominence and high level support of a process driven by corporate executives – which few understand. CSOs have referred to TNFD as ‘the next frontier on the corporate greenwashing on nature’ and raised alarm that it is trying to insert itself as a template for future state and international level regulations. They’ve also expressed deep concern at UN backing of a taskforce exclusively composed of global corporations. TNFD taskforce members include many major corporations with highly problematic environmental records, such as Bank of America, Dow, Anglo American, Bayer and BlackRock.  Shona Hawkes with Rainforest Action Network issued the following statement: “It should be obvious that global corporations should not be driving processes meant to protect nature from destruction by global corporations. All week, corporations and initiatives like TNFD have been discussing company self-reporting as if this was the missing piece to ending…
Latest Tweets
That is why we urge BNP Paribas to: 1⃣Cover all financial services 2⃣Exclude all direct finance to oil and gas exp… https://t.co/uihPCS8QXe
2023-01-27
‼️ So while these targets are a good step forward, they will not prevent BNP Paribas from continuing to finance maj… https://t.co/U1tEisulGj
2023-01-27
Notice Board
Update Alerts
On 2023-01-20 13:44:18 we updated the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) bank page.
On 2023-01-20 13:22:28 we updated the Goldman Sachs bank page.
On 2023-01-20 13:11:09 we updated the Mizuho Financial Group bank 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