Today, JPMorgan Chase announced a pledge to reach net-zero emissions from its lending and investment portfolios by 2050, and that it will join the Net Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA).
In the years since the Paris Climate Agreement, Chase has been the world’s largest banker of fossil fuels, pouring more than $316 billion into the fossil fuel industry from 2016 to 2020.
“The IEA is only the latest institution to state what climate science shows to be true: reaching net zero emissions by midcentury while limiting climate change to 1.5°C requires ending fossil fuel expansion,” said Alison Kirsch, Research and Policy Manager at Rainforest Action Network. “This means Chase’s net-zero commitment today is not worth the paper it’s written on unless the bank immediately ends its financing for fossil fuel expansion. Until that happens, we can only assume that the world’s biggest banker of fossil fuels is ingenuine in its commitment to net zero and the NZBA.”
“Chase is clearly feeling the pressure to join its peers by pledging to align its financing with net-zero by 2050 and keeping global temperature rise below 1.5°C, but the reality is that doing so means Chase must change its reckless financing practices now, and so far we’ve seen no evidence that that’s happening,” said Sierra Club Fossil-Free Finance Campaign Manager Ben Cushing. “Without a plan to stop funding the expansion of fossil fuels, commitments like this are completely inadequate.”
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