By The data revealed that JPMorgan Chase, is by far the worst funder of fossil fuels and fossil fuel expansion –– by a wide margin. Clearly put, Chase is the world’s worst banker of climate change.
To put this in perspective, JPMorgan’s volume of finance for overall fossil fuels in 2016-2018 is a shocking 29% higher than the second-placed bank, Wells Fargo. In addition, JPMorgan Chase’s $67 billion in finance for fossil fuel expansions is 68% higher than that of CitiBank, in distant second place. The bank stands out even more from its peers in its volume of financing for the top companies expanding fossil fuel extraction and infrastructure, placing Chase as the number one banker of climate change in both categories.
World’s Worst Banker of Climate Change Many Times Over
Chase has been a consistent bad actor, funding fossil fuel expansion projects that devastate the environment and violate human rights, particularly Indigenous rights. We’ve decided enough is enough, and have joined communities and organizations around the world to hold Chase accountable.
With almost two decades of experience with Wall Street banks and building on the momentum from a number of Indigenous and grassroots-led fights, we’ve undertaken a critical campaign. It’s time to get JPMorgan Chase out of fossil fuels to protect human rights, especially Indigenous rights, and ensure a livable future.
The era of big banks avoiding responsibility for the very real-world consequences of their investment decisions is over. Emissions have to drop by almost half by 2030 and going forward, Chase’s fossil financing has to match that trajectory. Chase must take responsibility, and play an integral part in initiating the pivot away from fossil fuels.
The Deal with Banks and Climate
Our latest Banking on Climate Change 2019 report reveals the shocking fact that big banks actually increased finance for fossil fuels.
In fact, in the last three years, big banks have pumped $1.9T into the fossil fuel sector. This is an insult to logic, to science and to humanity.
It’s clear that banks must take responsibility and play an integral part in initiating the pivot away from fossil fuels, but it’s up to us to push these banks to take necessary action. Let’s start with the biggest and baddest of them all: JPMorgan Chase.
Violating Indigenous Rights
Indigenous peoples are among those experiencing impacts from a changing climate first and worst. At the same time, they are at the forefront of movements around the world to protect land, air, and water from fossil fuel production. From the Transmountain pipeline, the Coastal GasLink pipeline, the Bayou Bridge pipeline, to the Keystone XL pipelines –– Indigenous peoples are leading the fights against major fossil fuel infrastructure projects that would lock us into decades more of fossil fuel expansion. The roots of the climate crisis and the exploitation of land for natural resources are issues Indigenous peoples have been speaking out against for hundreds of years. It’s no coincidence that Indigenous peoples lands guard 80 percent of the world’s biodiversity, even though they represent just 22 percent of the world’s land surface.
The banks supporting the fossil fuel industry have a responsibility to avoid financing projects and companies that violate Indigenous rights, including in particular treaty rights, religious rights and the right to require free, prior, and informed consent for development that impacts them. And yet, we see JPMorgan Chase and other banks backing companies like Enbridge, which is trying to build the Line 3 tar sands pipeline despite explicit opposition by impacted Indigenous nations. Chase in particular has an outsized role in ravaging the environment and trampling on the rights of Indigenous peoples. It is the only bank that is financing ALL OF THE FOUR key tar sands expansion companies-Enbridge’s Line 3 pipeline, Teck Frontier Resources Mine, TransCanda’s Keystone XL pipeline and the TransMountain pipeline. Chase is also the world’s worst banker of Arctic oil and gas, ultra-deepwater oil and gas, and the worst U.S. banker of tar sands.
Indigenous peoples play a central role in the fight for climate action, and defending Indigenous rights is vital to this fight.
JPMorgan Chase has the dubious distinction of being the biggest and baddest culprit in fossil fuel financing. Enough is enough!
