Solutions

What banks need to do

The answer is clear: banks need to stop lending money to fossil fuel companies and their endless expansion projects. What does that look like? These four steps would harness the power of finance to halt the climate crisis, and ensure a healthier, safer, fairer world for everyone. Banks need to:

001 CREATE SHORT-TERM REDUCTION TARGETS

Present short-term fossil fuel financing reduction targets and implementation plans that cover all of their financial services.

Many banks are making vague net zero commitments for 2050, but every year counts – and 2050 is too late. Banks should be setting clear targets to phase out fossil fuels and cut the emissions they finance, across all their lines of business: investments, bonds, and lending.

002 STOP FUNDING NEW FOSSIL FUELS

Integrate the findings of the IEA Net Zero scenario into their climate strategies, including a ban on financing new fossil fuel projects or financing companies expanding fossil fuel production.

The International Energy Agency’s 2021 Net Zero Emissions Scenario states that to meet the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement, there’s no room for further fossil fuel development. Banks need to align this scenario with their climate strategies, and rule out reliance on discredited offsetting and other unproven carbon dioxide removal schemes.

003 IMMEDIATELY PHASE OUT ALL COAL

Immediately phase out financing of thermal coal companies, including utilities without short-term plans to shut coal, and make a plan to phase out oil and gas financing.

Coal is on its way out. Its dirty extraction is on a downward trend, but banks should be stamping it out a lot faster. The bigger danger is oil and gas extraction, which banks are still financing across the world. That's why, together, we're pushing banks to scrap all fossil fuel funding.

004 PROTECT INDIGENOUS RIGHTS AND BIODIVERSITY

Ensure the free, prior, and informed consent of Indigenous communities and their lands in all financing activities.

Indigenous peoples have long lived in harmony with their lands, but many fossil fuel projects are threatening the land and way of life. Banks must only fund clean energy activities that respect Indigenous rights to free, prior, and informed consent.

WHAT BANK REGULATORS NEED TO DO

Every country has their own regulators. The Bank of England, the US Federal Reserve, and the Swiss National Bank are all regulators. They set the rules for how private banks operate in their country. And if they wanted to, they could make rules to stop private banks pouring billions into fossil fuels.

The amazing thing is that the rule already exists. It’s called the “One-for-One” rule. And it would make any bank investment in dirty fossil fuels WAY more expensive, which would stop banks doing it.

So what is the One-for-One rule? It’s a really simple idea. For every dollar a bank wants to invest in fossil fuels, they must hold another dollar in their savings. That means that if they want to invest $50 million in a new oil field, they need another $50 million in savings on top. That takes the total cost of the oil field from $50 million, up to $100 million! It makes it way more expensive.

If regulators start enforcing the “One for One” rule on all the big powerful private banks, fossil fuel investments would dry up overnight.

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