For immediate release: Sept 6, 2019
Contact for high resolution photos and video: Ayse Gursoz, 1-650-391-6443, ayse@ran.org
San Francisco–This evening, Chase Center, new home of the Golden State Warriors, opened its doors for its first major event, hosting Metallica with the San Francisco symphony. Climate activists seized the opportunity to project messages onto the wall of the new arena that called attention to the bank’s outsized role in funding fossil fuels and the destruction of the Amazon rainforest.
In the three years since the signing of the Paris climate agreement, Chase Bank has funneled over $196 BILLION dollars into fossil fuels, which is nearly a third (29%) higher than the second worst bank, Wells Fargo. As the world’s worst funder of fossil fuels, and fossil fuels expansion, Chase is the world’s worst banker of climate change. Chase Bank also invests in companies that currently drill, or plan to drill for oil in the Amazon, and underwrites the major agribusiness companies doing business in Brazil that are closely tied to deforestation in the Amazon.
Tonight’s action is part of a broader, growing pattern. Chase bank and Chase CEO Dimon have been hounded with the same message at many events across the country, including the bank’s AGM, various speaking engagements, and outside its headquarters. Activists are determined to continue bird dogging him until he takes responsibility for his role as one of the most powerful funders of climate change.
“Hurricane Dorian is just the latest of a string of climate catastrophes that can be clearly linked to our burning of coal, oil and gas,” said Patrick McCully, Climate and Energy Program Director at Rainforest Action Network. “How many more catastrophes are JPMorgan Chase willing to sit back and watch before they admit that their position as the world’s biggest banker of the climate crisis is morally bankrupt. Other financial institutions are starting to take action and it is past time for Chase to follow suit and announce that it will cease funding new coal mines, pipelines and dirty power plants.”
JPMorgan Chase is also the world’s worst funder of Arctic oil and gas, Ultra-deepwater oil and gas, and the worst U.S. banker of tar sands. It’s also one of the lead banks of Enbridge, the company behind the controversial Line 3 tar sands pipeline, which is opposed by three Ojibwe nations in Minnesota whose lands would be crossed by the pipeline. The biggest single energy sector client of the bank is TC Energy (formerly TransCanada) the developer of the notorious Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.
“The world is one fire, yet Chase Bank continues to fuel the climate crisis as the top financier of fossil fuels” said Scott Parkin, Organizing Director at Rainforest Action Network. “It’s time to take action for climate stability. Tonight we crashed their opening night party to send a clear message that we will continue to hold them accountable until they act on climate by defunding fossil fuels.”
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Rainforest Action Network preserves forests, protects the climate and upholds human rights by challenging corporate power and systemic injustice through frontline partnerships and strategic campaigns.