By BREAKING NEWS! This week, the #1 banker of the climate crisis, JPMorgan Chase, made a new commitment to align its financing with the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement.
Is it enough to make up for the damage Chase has already done to forests and the climate? Absolutely not. But we don’t want to say what’s missing before giving YOU major props, because this is still a BIG DEAL.
YOU, our network, allies, and the national Chase Campaign Coalition have shown that people power works even on the biggest corporations in the world. You just moved the #1 fossil fuel bank in the world even closer to defunding climate change.
This announcement by Chase comes three weeks after 60 climate and rights groups, led by Rainforest Action Network, set the bar on what actions are required for financial institutions to truly align the climate impact of their business practices with the Paris Agreement.
The commitment made by Chase this week is vague and not aggressive enough in accountability and action. It falls short of one crucial thing: an immediate plan of action to stop financing fossil fuels and defund climate change.
The scale of the climate crisis has been fueled by Chase, and its response must be more than the damage it’s caused. Chase has poured over $268 billion into fossil fuels in the four years after the Paris Agreement was adopted (2016-2019).
Last February, Chase announced that it would stop financing for Arctic oil & gas. This was the first step in a long list of issues the bank must take on. This week’s announcement gets Chase clearer on its vision and aligned with the Paris Climate Agreement so it can now do the real work of addressing its oversized contribution to the climate crisis.
Pressuring Chase to defund climate change is WORKING! We’ve come so far, but we won’t let them off the hook with empty promises.
If JPMorgan Chase is serious about aligning with Paris, it must immediately stop financing expansion of fossil fuels and deforestation. If the bank’s clients, like ExxonMobil and Keystone XL pipeline developer TC Energy, won’t stop building new wells and pipelines, JPMorgan Chase MUST drop those clients.
These are the urgent commitments that JPMorgan Chase failed to make today and we must push it to commit to for real climate action:
- End financing for fossil fuel expansion.
- Commit to phase out fossil fuel financing completely.
- Exit coal.
- Exit tar sands.
- End financing of deforestation.
- Respect Indigenous rights.
- Commit to halve climate impact by 2030, and zero it out by 2050.
Now, let’s take a moment to dance, jump up and down, and celebrate that the biggest bank on Wall Street has moved closer to defunding climate change. This will bring a ripple effect of change throughout the banking sector.
We’ve made our demands known, the ball is in Chase’s court, and we’ll keep pressuring it to do what’s right for people and planet.
Tell Chase to take action on its promise for a liveable climate!
