The annual “Banking on Climate Chaos” report was released this week, documenting the many financial institutions that have continued to buy into fossil fuels since the Paris Agreement was adopted six years ago. The U.S. is well represented in the report, with JPMorgan Chase leading the pack at more than $382 billion devoted to the oil and gas sector since 2016. Along with Citi, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America, U.S. banks hold the top four spots in the report and make up a quarter of all fossil fuel financing, despite not even cracking the top five in terms of total assets. One of the more damning statistics when looking at just what these institutions are funding is JPMorgan Chase’s commitment to Russian fossil fuel giant Gazprom. The company has pumped $2.97 billion into Gazprom since 2016, with $1.1 billion of that amount provided in 2021 alone.
“There are so many corporate connections to Russia. But this just feels like a really big one that hasn’t gotten much, if any, attention. Gazprom is the biggest Russian oil and gas company, and their No. 1 banker is JPMorgan Chase,” Rainforest Action Network Senior Campaigner Jason Disterhoft told Politico. Report co-author Alison Kirsch, who is the Rainforest Action Network’s Research and Policy Manager echoed that sentiment, slamming the world’s largest banks for “leading the charge” in sustained oil and gas projects. “These financial institutions are directly complicit in undermining a climate stable future for us all and must immediately end their support of any further fossil fuel infrastructure expansion,” Kirsch said.
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When broken down by project, it seems that fossil fuel financing shows no signs of stopping. Tar sands financing increased 51% from 2020 to 2021, while the 60 banks financing fracked oil and gas poured in more than $5 billion more in funds in 2021 compared with 2020. And the coal mining industry saw an overall increase of $302 million in financing from 2020 to 2021. Financing for liquified natural gas, offshore drilling, and coal power financing went down, though cumulatively the world’s largest banks continue to earmark billions of dollars for those sectors.
Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, whose commitment to environmental justice and climate has earned her a 96% lifetime score from the League of Conservation Voters, worries about the lack of accountability in the banking sector. Though the SEC is gearing up to adopt a rule forcing the financial industry to disclose emissions and climate risk, Tlaib says relying on banks for accountability is the wrong bet for the sake of our future. “Our planet is staring down a point of no return, and the world’s largest financial institutions are pouring gasoline on the fire. The science is unequivocal: the only way to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 [degrees] C by 2050 is by immediately halting all financing of new fossil fuel extraction projects,” Tlaib said in a statement. “Despite public commitments to aligning with Paris Agreement targets and hollow ‘net zero’ pledges, the world’s largest banks—including JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo—provided $4.6 trillion in fossil fuel financing in the last six years. Relying on the self-governance and foresight of the big banks didn’t work in 2008, and it certainly won’t work now.”