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Banks are still financing fossil fuels – while signing up to net zero pledges
(The Guardian, 4 Nov 2021) The financial sector is helping to drive the climate crisis. Radical government action is needed to overhaul the system.
Despite the stark warnings of climate breakdown from the IPCCand the UN, it’s business as usual for fossil fuel capitalism. An astonishing 56% of the G20 nations’ Covid-19 recovery funds for energy have gone to fossil fuel companies.
In April, the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ) chaired by Mark Carney was launched to bring together leading financial corporations to redirect finance towards achieving net zero by 2050. Yet many of its signatories remain among the world’s top backers of fossil fuels. Some have even issued new financing to companies expanding fossil fuel infrastructure since signing up with the GFANZ.
Oil extraction in the Amazon is being financed by GFANZ members HSBC and Citi, for instance, while Deutsche Bank, MUFG, and Credit Agricole are issuing bonds for a company that constructs pipelines in Indigenous territories. These are just some of the more prominent players in a financial system that remains too tightly entwined with fossil capitalism through unaccountable and complex global flows between fossil fuel corporations and private equity firms, asset managers, pension funds and other financial institutions.
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