Melanie Oldham from Freeport, Texas was among those attending ING’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) last Tuesday to question the bank on its finance for US LNG. The Dutch banking giant has financed the Freeport LNG terminal, which has already caused a massive explosion and is suspected as a key driver of the community’s increased lifetime cancer risk.

The meeting was preceded by a demonstration by campaigners, including dozens of the bank’s  business and retail customers. Standing on huge oil drums bearing the slogans ‘Not with my money’ and ‘No new oil and gas’, they called on the Netherlands’ largest bank to stop financing the climate crisis. The demonstration was supported by Milieudefensie, Milieudefensie Jong, Fossielvrij NL, BankTrack, Better Brazoria, Break Free From Plastic and Fair Resource Foundation.

Inside the meeting, ING’s CEO Steven van Rijswijk faced critical questions on issues ranging from plastic pollution to US LNG finance, including criticism from some of its own customers.

Melanie Oldham, Director of Better Brazoria in Freeport Texas, said: “LNG companies tend to always build in low-income, people of colour areas. Quite frankly, I believe they think we can’t organize and speak up about the risk we live with everyday. Yet, here we are: calling ING to act and have a credible timeline to phase-out and transition away from financing fossil fuels, specifically US LNG infrastructure. I know that ING took a step forward to stop financing of LNG expansion projects. However, it’s urgent to not finance these LNG corporations, like Venture Global.”

Diogo Silva of BankTrack, said: “Excluding some types of finance for some types of fossil fuel projects is not enough. ING knows that its policies still allow for Trump’s gas to keep flowing, and with testimonies like Melanie’s they also know that US LNG is turning US communities like Freeport, Texas, into sacrifice zones, and bringing climate chaos to the most vulnerable worldwide. We will continue to campaign for ING to walk the sustainability talk and exclude all finance for all fossil expansion. Reducing only some harm is not enough.”