Banks| Policies| 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
Jobs at BankTrack
Our annual reports
Funding and finances
History
BankTrack in the media
Our privacy policy
Donate
2023-01-23 00:00:00
Berta Cáceres: new rules for banks could help stop defender killings
2023-01-16 00:00:00
In the balance: Why European due diligence legislation must cover financial services
2022-12-08 00:00:00
Exposed: Western banks funding Qatar’s carbon bombs
2022-12-08 00:00:00
Right-wing attack on sustainable finance is the latest form of climate denial
2022-12-14 11:08:26
HSBC announces it will no longer finance new oil and gas fields
2022-10-13 15:56:39
More major banks and insurers refuse to support EACOP
2022-09-16 10:38:48
European Parliament passes emergency resolution against human rights violations & environmental threats linked to EACOP
2022-06-27 09:49:16
Crédit Agricole takes first step to phase out from the oil and gas sector
Connect
2022-11-22 00:00:00
Banking on Thin Ice: Two years in the heat
2022-11-17 00:00:00
BankTrack Global Human Rights Benchmark 2022
2022-10-21 00:00:00
Burning forests in the name of clean energy? How banks are failing to exclude the harmful wood biomass industry from finance
2022-06-28 00:00:00
The East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP): Finance Risk Update No. 3
2022-04-05 00:00:00
The BankTrack Human Rights Benchmark Asia
2022-03-30 00:00:00
Banking on Climate Chaos 2022
See all publications
Browse
Home
Banks
Policies
Dodgy Deals
Campaigns
About
About BankTrack
Donate
Contact BankTrack
Publications
Victories
Follow Us
News
BankTrack blog
Facebook
Twitter Fossil Banks No Thanks Twitter Fossil Banks No Thanks Instagram
Affiliate Websites
Fossil Banks No Thanks
StopEACOP
Forests & Finance
Banks & Biodiversity
Drop JBS
Bank of Coal
Don't Buy into Occupation
Home › Blog
As the world’s weather turns extreme, this complacency from the Equator Principles is unacceptable
Start

By: Johan Frijns – BankTrack
2017-09-14

Share this page:

Suomi NPP/VIIRS satellite view of Hurricane Irma on 03 September 2017.. Photo: NASA, via Wikimedia Commons
Go to:
Start

It’s been a month of extraordinary weather events around the world: a parade of four hurricanes in a week - Harvey, Irma, Jose and Katia - left a trail of destruction across the Caribbean, Mexico and the Southern US, while heavy monsoon rains have caused devastation in India, Bangladesh and Nepal. Meanwhile, record temperatures caused huge forest fires all over the Western US and Canada, and destroyed entire harvests throughout the Midwest.

It’s clear that man-made climate disruption is now with us and that such extreme weather events will become both more likely and more severe. There’s therefore an urgent need to keep fossil fuels in the ground to avoid such events from occurring ever more frequently.

One way to achieve this is for banks to commit to stop financing new fossil fuel extraction and infrastructure projects, which is precisely what our Global Call on the Equator Principles, launched two weeks ago, is asking all 91 banks that have adopted the Equator Principles to do. The call has already been supported by 145 groups and almost 2,000 people.

7257
unnamed.jpg
center
Equator Banks, Act!.
Photo: Rob Wilson / Ververidis Vasilis - Shutterstock / BankTrack

Yet the response letter we received from the Equator Principles Association last Friday (as Havana, Cuba was flooded and millions of Floridians prepared to leave their homes) seems to lack any appreciation of this urgency. Instead of announcing plans for far-reaching new commitments on how they will do their share to stop climate change, the Association promised … to discuss the matter further.

BankTrack launched the Global Call on the Equator Principles because, fifteen years into its existence as a self-declared ‘Gold Standard’ for sustainable lending for large infrastructure projects, climate disasters with deep impacts on climate change and Indigenous territories continue to be financed by its signatories - albeit now with an ‘Equator compliant’ seal of approval.

That’s why, together with 64 other organisations, we wrote to the Equator Principles Association in the run-up to its annual meeting on 24th October in São Paulo, Brazil, calling for the Principles to be completely revised to include solid commitments from adopting banks to bring their lending practices in line with the goals of the Paris climate agreement and to end all finance for new fossil fuel projects and infrastructure. In addition, the letter sought a commitment to fully respect Indigenous peoples’ rights and territories everywhere by committing to not finance projects that have not obtained the Free, Prior and Informed Consent of Indigenous communities they impact.

On climate change, the Association’s response is about as vague and non-committal as it gets, with only assurances that the topic will be discussed, updates provided, plenary sessions held, and case studies presented. However, these discussions focus on the risks climate change presents to banks’ own interests and the projects they finance. There is no sign that they recognise - let alone plan to address - their own role in contributing to climate chaos by their willingness to finance everything from coal power plants to tar sands pipelines, under the Equator Principles.

On respecting Indigenous Peoples’ rights, an equally urgent matter after the failure of the Principles to prevent violations of these rights in the case of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) and numerous other Equator projects, the signs are a little more promising. Following an intervention by ten Equator banks, the Association promises that it will be “actively considering” the current distinction between ‘designated’ and ‘non-designated’ countries - which wrongly assumes that projects in high-income countries like the United States need less scrutiny because human rights are already adequately protected by national law.

The urgent changes needed to the Principles mean the Equator banks must decide in São Paulo on a full revision to the current Principles. On this point, the letter provides no perspective whatsoever. The response states that historically the Principles have only been updated when the International Finance Corporation (IFC) revises its Performance Standards, to which the Equator Principles are pegged. As there are no signs that IFC is looking to update the Performance Standards any time soon, this would leave adopting banks stuck with the outdated 2013 version of the Equator Principles for years to come, as if the Paris Agreement of 2015 never happened.

With only five weeks to go until the 91 banks meet in São Paulo, it is up to us, and to the handful of Equator Banks that also wish to strengthen the Principles, to demand from the Equator Principles Association that it drastically steps up its ambition level and starts a revision process for the worn-out Principles of 2013.

A failure of this meeting to deliver will result in a fatal blow to the reputation of the Principles as a global sustainability standard, and in fact position the initiative as one that is actively accommodating breaches of Indigenous Peoples’ rights and contributing to the climate crisis currently driving more extreme weather events and stronger storms.

We call on you to help press this point and join the call:

Equator Banks, Act!

Stop financing Climate Disasters

Respect Indigenous People's Rights and Territories

Browse
Home
Banks
Policies
Dodgy Deals
Campaigns
About
About BankTrack
Donate
Contact BankTrack
Publications
Victories
Follow Us
News
BankTrack blog
Facebook
Twitter Fossil Banks No Thanks Twitter Fossil Banks No Thanks Instagram
Affiliate Websites
Fossil Banks No Thanks
StopEACOP
Forests & Finance
Banks & Biodiversity
Drop JBS
Bank of Coal
Don't Buy into Occupation
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