Since the signing of the Paris Climate Agreement in 2015, aimed at limiting global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels (1850-1900), nearly eight trillion dollars in loans, stock issues, and bonds have been directed towards oil, gas, and coal companies, according to the latest edition of the ‘Banking on Climate Chaos’ report, prepared by a consortium of non-governmental organizations.
In detail, the 65 banks surveyed spent 869 billion dollars last year on these various forms of financial support, an amount that increased by 23% in one year. Approximately half of this sum was dedicated to fossil fuel expansion, according to the report.
This amount is close to the value of 2021, following two consecutive years of decline. More than two-thirds of the banks increased their financing, the study authors highlight.
American ‘JPMorgan’ is the leading financial supporter of fossil fuels, with 53.5 billion dollars last year (+39%), ahead of its compatriots ‘Bank of America’ and ‘Citigroup’, according to data compiled by eight NGOs, including the ‘Rainforest Action Network’, ‘Reclaim Finance’, and ‘Urgewald’.
Last year was the year Donald Trump returned to the White House, promising to “drill like a madman,” a phrase that became one of his campaign slogans (“We will drill, baby, drill”).
The study’s data, either published directly by companies or sourced from data providers and the financial agency Bloomberg, also reveal a gradual withdrawal of major French banks starting in 2020.
