As reported in the report “Banking on Climate Chaos 2021”, in the five years since the Paris agreement on climate change was signed, the 60 top world banks have invested $3.8 trillion in the fossil fuel sector.
The leader in financing fossil fuels is J.P. Morgan Chase And Co. which over five years invested in oil and gas projects $313.74 billion. Next come Citigroup Inc. ($237.5 billion) and Wells Fargo and Co. ($223.35 billion).
Bank investments in the sector, however, fell in 2020 — a 9 % reduction following three consecutive years of growth. Wells Fargo actually reduced its investments last year to $26.4 billion from $45.8 billion a year earlier.
BNP Paribas last year boosted its financing in the fossil fuels sector by 41 % — to $40.75 billion. The French bank’s investments in the sector have leapt by about 2 ½ times since 2016. The bank has limited investments in production of non-traditional oil and gas, but its financing of majors is unchanged, the report notes. In 2020, BNP Parisbas provided $12.7 to BP plc, $4.2 billion to Royal Dutch Shell, $3.7 billion to Total and $1.8 billion to Saudi Aramco.
The sole bank to appear on the list, but which in 2020 did no financing of production of fossil fuels and energy was French bank Crédit Mutuel – last on the list in terms of financing. Over five years, it invested $284 million in the sector.
“This report serves as a reality check for banks that think that vague ‘net-zero’ goals are enough to stop the climate crisis,” Lorne Stockman, senior research analyst at Oil Change International, was quoted as saying by MarketWatch.
Bank of America Corp. this year joined the list of major banks which have pledged to achieve zero net emissions in their investment portfolio by 2050. J.P Morgan and Morgan Stanley have set similar goals.
