BANKS DODGY DEALS CAMPAIGNS
Sections
Banks Dodgy Deals Campaigns
Our campaigns
Banks and Climate
Banks and Human Rights
Banks and Nature
Our projects
Tracking the NZBA
Banks and Russia
Banks and Steel
Tracking the Equator Principles
Tracking the PRBs
Find a Better Bank
Banks and the OECD Guidelines
Media
News Publications
Raiffeisen Out! Bank.Green End Coal Finance Plastic Banks Tracker Defund TotalEnergies Financial Exclusions Tracker Equator-Complaints.Org Don't Buy into Occupation Banks & Biodiversity Forests & Finance Drop JBS StopEACOP Fossil-Free Finance
BankTrack
About BankTrack Organisation Our team Our board Our annual reports Funding and finances Guiding principles Our history BankTrack in the media Team up with us Our privacy policy Donate Get in touch
Successes Contact BankTrack
Donate Mailing list Facebook Twitter Linkedin Login
Home › BankTrack news ›
BankTrack News

Activists tell banks and investors to stop doing business with the world’s largest meat company JBS

Company's USD 1 billion “sustainability-linked bond” will allow expansion of Amazon deforestation and massive greenhouse gas emissions, say campaigners
2021-11-03
By: BankTrack & Forests & Finance
Contact:

Merel van der Mark, Coordinator of the Forests and Finance coalition at merel@ran.org 

Photo: Forests and Finance
2021-11-03
By: BankTrack & Forests & Finance
Contact:

Merel van der Mark, Coordinator of the Forests and Finance coalition at merel@ran.org 

As COP26 continues in Glasgow, Scotland, with Climate Finance Day,  a coalition of civil society groups including the Forests and Finance Coalition, BankTrack, Greenpeace International, and other organisations sent a letter to 66 banks and other financial institutions urging them to no longer do business with the world’s largest meat company JBS, and to divest from the USD 1 billion “sustainability-linked bond” issued by the company in June. According to the organizations, the bond provides a questionable sustainability cover for a business model that will see JBS expand its climate-intensive activities and human rights abuses over the next decade.

Underwriters of the sustainability-linked bond include the banks Banco Bradesco, Barclays, BTG Pactual, Mizuho Financial Group, and Banco Santander. Among the holders of JBS’s Sustainability Linked Bond are US based investors such as BlackRock and State Street and Canadian based investors Manulife and Toronto-Dominion Bank. 

Due in 2032, the debt is tied to JBS reducing its scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emission intensity by 30%, compared to a baseline of 2019. It neglects, however, the fact that scope 3 emissions — not covered by the bond — represent more than 90% of JBS’s emissions. Scope 3 emissions are the emissions from JBS’ supply chain. This includes the CO2 emissions associated with deforestation and land fires that occur on ranches that raise cattle, as well as the methane emissions associated with livestock raising. 

Several of the banks and investors have commitments in place to align their financing to the Paris Agreement, such as the UN Principles for Responsible Banking, and the UN Principles for Responsible Investment. Santander and Bradesco are also signatories of the Plano Amazonia, through which they commit to halt deforestation in the meat industry. 

Recent research by the UNEP and the IPCC have shown that in addition to cutting carbon dioxide emissions, drastically reducing methane emissions is the best way to rapidly avert the climate crisis and limit global warming to 1.5°C, and that it is urgent to prevent the meat industry’s great damage to the global climate, including the 32% of global methane emissions it generates. Global meat giant JBS, as the world’s largest animal protein company and the second-largest food company in the world by annual sales, is a significant contributor to climate change —  therefore banks and investors that wish to align their portfolios with the goals of the Paris Agreement should stay away from this bad business.

According to Marília Monteiro, Forests and Biodiversity Campaigner at BankTrack, "Methane is at the core of JBS’ business, and claiming a sustainability label for this bond is merely greenwashing — something that the company has been doing for decades. Banks serious about their climate ambitions should not go along with this sort of blatant greenwash and stay clear of this bond. ”

Anna Jones, Senior Forest Campaigner at Greenpeace UK, said "The very same financial institutions that are parading their zero deforestation commitments at COP26 are bankrolling JBS, an industrial meat giant whose business has helped push the Amazon to the brink of collapse. The Amazon does not have time for more empty pledges. We can't keep funding destruction and pretending we are saving the planet. Finance to industrial meat, like fossil fuels, must end now."

Merel van der Mark, coordinator of the Forests & Finance Coalition, said “Banco Santander,  a founding member of the Net Zero Banking Alliance, says it’s committed to fight deforestation, especially in the Amazon, but it seems more committed to its profits. Issuing a sustainability linked bond for the company that is arguably one of largest deforesters of the Amazon, is in clear conflict with a commitment to fight deforestation.”

Banks

Banco Bradesco

Brazil
Active

Banco Santander

Spain
Active

Barclays

United Kingdom
Active

BTG Pactual

Brazil
Active

Mizuho Financial Group

Japan
Active
Dodgy Deals

JBS

Brazil
Company
active
Industrial Livestock Production | ...

JBS

Brazil
There are no active company profiles for this item now.
Sections
Banks Dodgy Deals Campaigns
Our campaigns
Banks and Climate Banks and Human Rights Banks and Nature
Our projects
Tracking the NZBA Banks and Russia Banks and Steel Tracking the Equator Principles Tracking the PRBs Find a Better Bank Banks and the OECD Guidelines
Media
News Publications
Raiffeisen Out! Bank.Green End Coal Finance Plastic Banks Tracker Defund TotalEnergies Financial Exclusions Tracker Equator-Complaints.Org Don't Buy into Occupation Banks & Biodiversity Forests & Finance Drop JBS StopEACOP Fossil-Free Finance
BankTrack
About BankTrack Organisation Our team Our board Our annual reports Funding and finances Guiding principles Our history BankTrack in the media Team up with us Our privacy policy Donate Get in touch
Successes Contact BankTrack
Nijmegen
The Netherlands
Contact us
Donate Mailing list Facebook Twitter Linkedin
© BankTrack
BankTrack is a registered charity in the Netherlands (ANBI) - RSIN 813874658
Find our privacy policy here

Stay up to date

Sign up now for all BankTrack's news


Make a comment

Your comment will be reviewed, before being posted