Banks| Dodgy Deals| Campaigns
About us| Blog| Publications| Successes| Contact us| Donate
About BankTrack
Visit us
Organisation
Our team
Our board
Guiding principles
Team up with us
Join our Active Allies list
Our annual reports
Funding and finances
History
BankTrack in the media
Our privacy policy
Donate
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
See all publications
Browse
Home
Banks
Dodgy Deals
Map
Campaigns
About
About BankTrack
Donate
Contact BankTrack
Publications
Victories
Follow Us
News
BankTrack blog
Facebook page
Twitter channel
Home › News
Banks warned of tar sands pipelines investment risks in new report
Start
Banks
Dodgy Deals

By: Greenpeace & Oil Change International
2017-10-31

Contact:

Charlie Kronick, Greenpeace UK Senior Programme Advisor, Greenpeace UK, +44 (0)7801 212963

charlie.kronick@greenpeace.org.


Share this page:

"In the pipeline" report front cover, October 2017. Photo: Greenpeace, Oil Change International
A new report by Greenpeace and Oil Change International warns of major banks’ exposure to financial and reputational damage due to their financing of tar sands pipelines. The report, In the Pipeline: Risks for funders of tar sands pipelines, examines in depth the range of risks related to all three proposed tar sands pipelines including legal challenges, opposition from Indigenous and local communities, threats to drinking water and economic vulnerability.
 
Barclays, JPMorgan Chase and the TD Bank Group are among the world’s major banks financing tar sands pipelines and the companies behind them (Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain Expansion, TransCanada’s Keystone XL, and Enbridge’s Line 3 expansion).
 
Among the major risks identified in the report are:
  • Lack of Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) from all Indigenous communities impacted by the pipelines. On-the-ground resistance is already unfolding along the routes of the Kinder Morgan and Line 3 pipeline expansions. JPMorgan Chase’s human rights policy states that the bank expects its clients to align with FPIC requirements, raising questions about its pipeline lending.

  • Negative environmental impacts, including the contamination of drinking water from leaks. The companies proposing to build the three new tar sands pipelines have seen one spill a week, on average, in the U.S. since 2010. New pipelines threaten thousands of watercourses, aquifers and bodies of water with spills. Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain Expansion goes through a UNESCO World Heritage site, Jasper National Park, which appears to contravene TD’s policy of not financing projects that operate in such sites.

  • Tar sands pipelines’ economic success is dependent on tar sands expansion. Low oil prices and structural changes in oil demand, including Asian and European markets’ shift away from fossil fuel vehicles, raise questions about the long-term viability of the tar sands, and pipelines dependent on their expansion.

  • Short-term lending decisions undermine bank and investor action on climate. The three proposed pipelines could add almost 2 million barrels per day in pipeline capacity. Facilitating the expansion of the tar sands and enabling decades-long carbon-lock in risks fatally undermining Barclays’ plans to develop a sustainable approach for its global energy client portfolio, JPMorgan Chase’s policies, which recognize the goals of the Paris Agreement, and as TD’s work with the UN to better assess and disclose climate risks and opportunities..

The report, therefore, recommends that banks do not finance or arrange financing (including the issuance of securities), related to new tar sands pipelines. Existing funders are encouraged to sell their stakes in full or not renew credit facilities. The report further provides bank investors with a list of questions to pose to management to understand whether risks are being properly managed.
 
A forthcoming report by Rainforest Action Network and partner organizations grades large multinational banks on their policies concerning tar sands financing, finding that most lack policies to curtail their significant exposure to these risky pipelines and the companies behind them. The report will be published on November 2nd and available at www.ran.org/fundingtarsands.
 
Another report released earlier this month by the Secwepemc Nation in B.C., whose land Kinder Morgan’s new pipeline is slated to cross, further details risks related to Indigenous assertions of their rights and title over unceded land.

Download the Greenpeace and Oil Change International Report here:  https://www.greenpeace.org.uk/InThePipeline.

Related banks

Barclays United Kingdom

active

JPMorgan Chase United States

active

Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD Bank) Canada

active

Related Dodgy Deals

Projects

active

Keystone XL pipeline United States

Pipeline Transportation of Crude Oil
target

Line 3 Pipeline Replacement Project (L3RP) United States

Pipeline Transportation of Crude Oil
There are no projects active for this item now.
on record

Canadian tar sands Canada

Oil and Gas Extraction
on record

Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion project (TMEP) Canada

Pipeline Transportation of Crude Oil
Browse
Home
Banks
Dodgy Deals
Map
Campaigns
About
About BankTrack
Donate
Contact BankTrack
Publications
Victories
Follow Us
News
BankTrack blog
Facebook page
Twitter channel
Vismarkt 15
6511 VJ Nijmegen
The Netherlands

Tel: +31 24 324 9220
Contact@banktrack.org
©2016 BankTrack                Webdesign by BankTrack and EASYmind
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