Country: Global

New financial analysis reveals how one of Barclays’ darling clients, Adani Green Energy, is reportedly involved in yet another fraud scandal, and the bank’s financing could have helped them get there. 

As this story is evolving, Barclays staff are confidentially sharing their opinions on Barclay’s continued support of Adani. Just email confidential@bankonourfuture.org or send a signal message to +447818822876 to speak directly to the team.

HSBC lends billions of dollars to fossil fuel companies, every year. And it’s creating a headache of their own making.

Last week, HSBC was caught out by the UK ads regulator for greenwashing, and forced to come clean about its cosy relationship with the world’s worst fossil fuel companies.

The co-chair of the world’s largest “green alliance” of banks, Mark Carney, has tried to put a brave face on the failings of banks in addressing the climate crisis. But during cross-examination at the UK parliament’s environmental audit committee this week, the cracks showed.

This is huge. HSBC is the first bank in the world to be found guilty of greenwashing by an advertising regulator. And it’s all over the headlines: FT, Bloomberg, WSJ, Times, Telegraph, Guardian, Daily Mail, BBC and more.

Here’s the press release with all the major facts and figures you need:

New research shows that underwriting coal, oil & gas bonds is a glaring loophole in banks’ net-zero targets

• Banks have underwritten $2.7 trillion worth of coal, oil and gas bonds since the 2015 Paris climate agreement. 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Big banks being exposed…again. A new report from ShareAction shows that HSBC comes at the top of the ranking for investments in oil and gas expansion.

Citibank, the global fossil fuel industry’s second biggest funder, is responding to pressure from thousands of us and making moves on climate. It’s now ahead of other banks like JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, and Goldman Sachs on climate.

Goldman Sachs just released updated policies to try and tackle their investments in dirty fossil fuel projects. And they’re riddled with loopholes. They don’t outline anything to do with reducing greenhouse gas emissions and they’re massaging the numbers to make it look good (by using ‘intensity’ rather than ‘absolute’ targets).

It’s stunning. US banks and investors are responsible for roughly the same amount of emissions as all of Russia. It’s just one shocking finding from a report from the Center for American Progress (CAP) and the Sierra Club studying the carbon footprint of US banks and asset managers.

The pressure is working. A campaign led by ShareAction is forcing HSBC to phase out coal. It’s not perfect given the urgency of the crisis and there’s a way to go.

After dismissing it, they just announced that they’ll join the Net Zero Banking Alliance. And they’re pledging to reach net-zero emissions (from its lending and investment portfolios) by 2050. 

Here are some of the main arguments banks used and the arguments for why they don’t stack up.

1) “If we don’t fund coal, oil, gas someone else will just do it”

Banks should be focused on their own responsibility to reduce their financed emissions, not that of their competitors.

Dear José Viñals,

We’re writing regarding the anticipated update to Standard Chartered’s fossil fuel policy, as recently reported in the media. This letter is intended to set out our expectations for what that policy should entail in order for it to be regarded as credible and leading practice.

It has been a devastating year so far of wildfires, floods, and storms across the globe, not to mention the first ever recorded rainfall in the Arctic. July was the hottest month in human history.