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 20 years of BankTrack – Our history BankTrack in the media Team up with us Our privacy policy Donate Visit us
Successes Contact BankTrack
Donate Mailing list Facebook Twitter Linkedin Login
Home › Partner news ›
Partner News

Indigenous leaders launch new campaign to defund all four proposed tar sands pipelines

2017-05-09 | Turtle Island
By: Mazaska Talks
Photo: Jackie Fawn Illustrations for Mazaska Talks
2017-05-09 | Turtle Island
By: Mazaska Talks

Today, a coalition of grassroots Indigenous groups from across Turtle Island joins the 121 First Nations and Tribes united by the Treaty Alliance Against Tar Sands Expansion, to launch a new, integrated divestment campaign against the banks funding Dakota Access and the four tar sands crude oil pipelines currently proposed out of Canada.   

“We call on all banks and financial institutions to withdraw their investments in the corporations proposing to build new pipelines to carry even more tar sands oil out of Canada,” says Grand Chief Derek Nepinak of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs on behalf of the Treaty Alliance Against Tar Sands Expansion.  “We call on individuals, businesses, organizations, and governments to withdraw their money from these financial institutions until they divest from these pipeline companies who are violating our rights, our treaties and our sovereignty.  We stand in solidarity with the Tribes of the Great Sioux Nation and all communities impacted by the Dakota Access Pipeline, and also call for divestment from any financial institution invested in Energy Transfer Partners.”  

“Much of my community is under water right now due to historic flooding - these are the climate fuelled disasters that banks are funding by pumping money into these pipeline projects” says Grand Chief Serge Simon of the Mohawk Council of Kanesatake, on behalf of the Treaty Alliance Against Tar Sands Expansion. “We cannot allow Big Oil to divide us or weaken our resistance: every one of these four tar sands pipelines needs to be stopped in order to stop the expansion of the Alberta Tar Sands. We stand united in the protection of our water, our communities, our climate, and our ways of life as First Peoples.”

The Mazaska Talks website (“mazaska” is Lakota for “money”) is a centralized resource for this campaign, with detailed financial data as well as tools for taking action.  The campaign targets all 61 banks that currently provide financing to Energy Transfer Partners or the three companies proposing new tar sands pipelines: TransCanada (Keystone XL and Energy East), Kinder Morgan (TransMountain Expansion), and Enbridge (Line 3 Expansion).   Enbridge was also the company behind the proposed Northern Gateway tar sands pipeline, which was defeated by First Nations and popular resistance in 2016.  A list of primary targets includes the 17 banks that fund all of these companies, as well as the convenors of major multi-bank credit facilities: Bank of America, Bank of Montreal, Barclays, BNP Paribas, CIBC, Citi, Crédit Agricole, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan Chase, Mizuho, MUFG, RBC, SMBC, ScotiaBank, TD Bank, and Wells Fargo.  

"Divestment is the next stage in the fight against the black snake that has come to poison our lands," says Matt Remle of Last Real Indians, a leader of the coalition that successfully pushed the City of Seattle to divest over $3 billion from DAPL banks earlier this year.  "Big oil and their financial backers are not persuaded by moral and environmental arguments, so it is time to hit them in the pocket book.  The resistance at Standing Rock changed the world - Indigenous Nations are rising up to create a future with clean water and respect for human rights."  

So far, the divestment movement launched during the resistance at Standing Rock has successfully withdrawn over $5 billion from DAPL-funding banks, including money from 3 major US cities and over $80 million in individual accounts.  Three European banks have sold their shares of loans to the pipeline company in response to public pressure - DNB of Norway, ING of the Netherlands, and BNP Paribas of France.   

“These companies may not listen to morality, but they do listen to money,” says Tara Houska, National Campaigns Director of Honor the Earth and part of an Indigenous women’s delegation that traveled to Norway and Switzerland to meet directly with several banks and Norway’s oil fund. “Many of these banks already have human rights directives in place and all should have policies respecting Indigenous communities. Financiers should follow their own rules. Passing the blame onto companies committing atrocities and a federal government willing to overrun its citizens’ rights for profit is unacceptable - we are consumers, we have agency and we have a say in how our money is invested.”

This new campaign to defund the tar sands pipelines comes at a time of unprecedented economic vulnerability in the tar sands industry, due to consistently low oil prices and the extremely high cost of tar sands extraction.  Major oil companies have been withdrawing investments from the tar sands steadily over the past two years.

Banks

Bank of America

United States
Active

Barclays

United Kingdom
Active

BNP Paribas

France
Active

Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC)

Canada
Active

Citi

United States
Active

Crédit Agricole

France
Active

Deutsche Bank

Germany
Active

JPMorgan Chase

United States
Active

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG)

Japan
Active

Mizuho Financial Group

Japan
Active

Royal Bank of Canada (RBC)

Canada
Active

Scotiabank

Canada
Active

Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group

Japan
Active

Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD Bank)

Canada
Active

Wells Fargo

United States
Active

Credit Suisse

Switzerland
On record
Dodgy Deals
There are no active project profiles for this item now.

Dakota Access Pipeline

United States
Project
On record
Pipeline Transportation of Crude Oil

Dakota Access Pipeline

United States

Keystone XL pipeline

United States
Project
On record
Pipeline Transportation of Crude Oil

Keystone XL pipeline

United States
There are no active company profiles for this item now.

TC Energy

Canada
Company
on record
Pipeline Transportation of Crude Oil | Pipeline Transportation of Natural Gas

TC Energy

Canada
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 20 years of BankTrack – Our history BankTrack in the media Team up with us Our privacy policy Donate Visit us
Successes Contact BankTrack
Vismarkt 15
6511 VJ Nijmegen
The Netherlands
Contact@banktrack.org
Donate Mailing list Facebook Twitter Linkedin
©2023 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