Santander: Working to fry the planet

New posters are appearing around Glasgow for COP26, calling out Santander’s continued financing of fossil fuels. Since the Paris Climate Agreement in 2015, Santander have poured $34 billion into fossil fuels – and they’re still going. That includes French fossil fuel giant TotalEnergies, one of the worst emitters on the planet.

This subvertising action appears in the face of greenwashing claims from Santander. They’re saying that they’re prioritising the climate. But their investments tell a very different story. Just look at TotalEnergies. They’ve received $591 million in the last five years from Santander. And they got that money despite evidence showing that  TotalEnergies are involved in numerous cases of corruption, underpaying staff, violating indigenous rights and forced displacement.

Natasha Ion, Climate Campaigner at BankTrack, commented: “It’s great to see campaigners drawing attention to fossil banks and their complicity in financing climate destruction. Santander has no policy exclusions in place for offshore and conventional oil and gas and also has no plan in place for phasing out finance to all fossil fuels. Without more concrete action on its fossil financing, Santander’s branding of itself as a sustainable and climate-conscious bank is nothing less than greenwashing.”

A subvertiser who took part in the Glasgow action commented: “In the lead up to COP26, banks have been making a lot of noise about their supposed green credentials and net zero commitments. But we know that banks like Santander are failing to follow up their rhetoric with action. The only way that they can be taken seriously as climate leaders is to cut their ties with the fossil fuel industry, and stop financing companies like TotalEnergies and PGE. Hopefully these posters will help spread awareness among the public about the hypocrisy of Santander’s portfolio.”