REPORT: Banks Vastly Increased Financing Fossil Fuels Across the Globe

Published March 21, 2019

BEMIDJI, Minn. — On Wednesday, the Indigenous Environmental Network released the Bank on Climate Change Report, in partnership with Rainforest Action Network, Banktrack, Sierra Club, Oil Change International, and Honor the Earth.

The report, endorsed by over 150 organizations around the world, reveals that 33 global banks have provided almost $2 trillion to fossil fuel companies since the adoption of the Paris climate accord at the end of 2015. The amount of financing has risen in each of the past two years.

Of this $2 trillion, $600 billion went to 100 top companies aggressively expanding fossil fuels. Alarmingly, these findings reveal that the business practices of the world’s major banks continue to be aligned with climate disaster and stand in sharp contrast to the IPCC special report on global warming of 1.5°C, which highlights the need for a rapid phase-out of fossil fuels.

Banking on Climate Change 2019 is the tenth annual fossil fuel report card and the first-ever analysis of funding from the world’s major banks for the fossil fuels sector as a whole. Expanded in scope, the report adds up lending and underwriting to 1,800 companies across the coal, oil and gas sectors globally over the past three years. The report also tracks fossil fuel expansion by aggregating data on which banks are financing 100 top companies expanding fossil fuels.

Banking on Climate Change 2019 reveals that fossil fuel financing is dominated by the big U.S. banks: the four biggest global bankers of fossil fuels are JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citi, and Bank of America. Notably, JPMorgan Chase is by far the worst banker of fossil fuels and fossil fuel expansion — and therefore the world’s worst banker of climate change. Since the Paris Agreement, JPMorgan Chase has provided $196 billion in finance for fossil fuels, 10% of all fossil fuel finance from the 33 major global banks.