It’s a warning to all board members of banks

They put on an impressive display and demanded shareholders vote out Board Chair, Charles H. Noski, for his oversight in continuing to fuel the climate crisis.

Wells Fargo has been the world’s third worst banker of fossil fuels since the adoption of the Paris Climate Agreement, with $223 billion in lending and underwriting between 2016 and 2020. It is the world’s leading funder of fracked oil and gas.

Fast forward to August and it happened. Wells Fargo Chairman Charles Noski has announced he’s stepping down. And what’s more this isn’t the first time.

Last year, groups demanded former oil man and climate-denial maven Lee Raymond be removed from the JPMorgan Chase board of directors. After a strong no vote, Lee Raymond left the board. These are positive signs ahead of climate talks scheduled for later this year.

Why target Wells Fargo?

Instead of taking the necessary action to end its funding of fossil fuel expansion, Wells Fargo continues to invest in and profit off the industries fuelling climate change. That includes continuing to fund and advise Enbridge on its construction of the Line 3 pipeline, which would pump tar sands, the dirtiest form of oil, from Alberta, across Minnesota and Wisconsin.

The pipeline’s route endangers the Great Lakes, home to one fifth of the world’s fresh water, and some of the most delicate soils, aquifers, and pristine lakes in northern Minnesota, It also threatens critical resources on Ojibwe treaty lands, where tribal members retain the rights to hunt, fish, gather, hold ceremony, and travel.

Who was involved in making this happen?

Idle No More

NDN Collective

Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women/American Indian Movement Foothills-Central California

1000 Grandmothers for Future Generations

Diablo Rising Tide

Earth Guardians

Extinction Rebellion San Francisco Bay Area

Jobs With Justice San Francisco

San Francisco First Mennonite Church

Silicon Valley Climate Action Now

Sunrise Movement, Los Angeles and Bay Area hubs