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What an incredible result. A quarter of Credit Suisse (CS) shareholders are telling CS to clean up on climate by voting against management and demanding a fossil fuel funding phase out.

AGMs are meant to be where CEOs boast about their profits and give each other high fives. But this was something different. Three of the biggest fossil fuel funders in the world had their AGMs today – and shareholders are sending a clear message that they need to sort it out.

This is a guest post by the activists at Yale Endowment Justice Coalition, who confronted their professor and Citi board member, Ernesto Zedillo today:

This morning, we at the Yale Endowment Justice Coalition, confronted Professor Ernesto Zedillo about Citigroup’s fossil fuel holdings.

🚨Update – Citi just had it’s AGM. There were two unprecedented votes on stopping new fossil fuel expansion and stopping the violation of indigenous rights. Both got much more support than expected, but neither passed.

What an incredible 2 hours. Campaigners across Africa came together to share stories, discuss tactics and take action against the East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP). The giant EACOP pipeline is set to devastate livelihoods, homes and habitats, mainly in Tanzania.

Before COP26, Mark Carney, who is in charge of wrangling global banks to join his Net-Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA), wrote a piece in the Financial Times about numbers.

🚨 Update 🚨

Two big updates since this article was first published:

1. As a result of the multiple failings outlined below, Credit Suisse are facing TWO major shareholder revolts.

The Verde Island Passage is known as the “Amazon of the sea” because of it’s incredibly diverse wildlife, is facing danger from giant fossil fuel companies who are trying to open it up for gas drilling.

UniCredit are doing their best to avoid facing up to their dirty investments. They’ve poured over $36bn into fossil fuels since 2016, and have avoided taking any real steps to cutting it out fully.

People across Canada are taking on RBC.

This was meant to be a day for Canada’s biggest bank, RBC had their AGM where their super rich investors come together to celebrate their profits, rub themselves on the back, and high five each-other.

“We are on a fast track to climate disaster.” – Antonio Guterres, General Secretary of the UN

The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is publishing it’s report on how to avoid the unprecedented heatwaves, terrifying storms, and widespread water shortages that we’re currently on track for.

Banks around the world have billions of dollars in Russia, funding Russia’s biggest fossil fuel companies. Those are the same companies that are feeding Putin’s war chest. The same companies are filling Russian tanks with fuel.

Over the last 6 years, since the Paris Climate Accord, the worlds 60 biggest banks have poured over $4,600,000,000,000 into fossil fuel projects. Your eyes aren’t deceiving you. That’s $4.6 TRILLION dollars being used for more oil rigs, more gas fields, and more coal mines.

The new climate proposals released by Barclays are completely contradictory. On one hand they’re committing to Net Zero by 2050. On the other hand, their new proposals allow them to keep investing in NEW fossil fuels.

An incredible win for campaigners at ShareAction. Through organising shareholders, ShareAction are making HSBC commit to:

✅  Update its coal, oil, and gas policies again before the end of the year.

Banks and financial institutions were too slow to act. Even in the face of Ukrainian tragedy.  They dragged their feet pulling their money out of Russian fossil fuel companies – the same companies funding Putin’s invasion.

The Putin100 are the 100 global financial institutions across the world propping up Putin’s war machine with investments, insurance and financing for Russian fossil fuel companies. These companies are helping to fund Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine: https://putin100.org/

The pressure is working to get these institutions to pull out of the Russian fossil fuels funding Putin.

Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine is forcing companies to make big, bold choices. Exxon, one of the worst polluters in history, is saying it’s leaving $4bn worth of investments and projects to get out.

Frontline New York residents are taking over a section of Citi HQ in time for “Investor Day”, a day when hundreds of Citi’s super rich investors are getting together. They are raising objections to Citi’s massive investments into fossil fuel expansion and its huge exposure to the Russian economy, especially the energy sector

Citigroup is the second largest funder of the fossil fuel industry among all banks worldwide, the largest US backer of the coal industry, and it has the most invested in Russian fossil fuels of any US bank.

The people of Ukraine are being subjected to a brutal and illegal invasion perpetrated by the Russian military. And Putin is paying for it using all the profits he’s making from Russia’s biggest fossil fuel companies.

Climate-wrecking coal company Whitehaven Coal is the largest pure coal mining company in Australia. The company currently operates four giant mines and plans to invest around $2 billion developing three new coal mines and expansions.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says that humans and nature are being pushed over the edge of what we can adapt to. It’s saying many of the impacts of global warming are now “irreversible”.

These are the 12 worst banks for fossil fuel investments:

US and Canadian banks are leading the way, investing around 1 trillion dollars between them.

For months HSBC has been telling us to hold 22 February in our diaries. This is the date it was planning to publish its targets for reducing the billions of dollars it is pouring into oil and gas companies, who are fuelling the climate crisis.