Which banks are financing fossil fuels?
Unfortunately, almost all UK high street banks are financing fossil fuels. Since the Paris Agreement in 2015 – where the world first agreed to limit global warming to below 2 degrees – the most UK banks have provided billions in funding to fossil fuels.
Several big high street banks in the UK appear in the Banking on Climate Chaos report of the top 60 banks for fossil fuel financing. The report covers eight of the banking groups that appear in the our guides to ethical current accounts, savings and mortgages for example.
JP Morgan Chase is the biggest funder from 2015-2021 with a total of $382 billion. It even increased its funding of fossil fuels by $10 billion more in 2021 than in 2020.
Barclays is at number seven with $167 billion and is the biggest banker of fossil fuels in Europe.
How much some banks are funding fossil fuels
Position
|
Bank |
Finance for fossil fuel
expansion 2016-2021
(US$, billions, rounded up) |
Total fossil fuel finance
2016-2021
(US$, billions, rounded up) |
---|
1 |
JP Morgan Chase |
$117 bn |
$382 bn |
7 |
Barclays |
$54 bn |
$167 bn |
13 |
HSBC |
$55 bn |
$130 bn |
14 |
Goldman Sachs |
$44 bn |
$119 bn |
32 |
Santander |
$23 bn |
$43 bn |
45 |
Natwest |
$4 bn |
$15 bn |
58 |
Lloyds |
$4 bn |
$13 bn |
54 |
Danske Bank |
$1 bn |
$7 bn |
For the full listing of all 60 banks visit the Banking on Climate Chaos report website.
For years, fossil fuel financing has been so much the norm that unless banks have a robust policy on it, they may well be financing the industry. Unfortunately, only a handful of banks have fully committed to ensure that your money won’t go to oil, gas or coil.
In fact, many banks are still funding the very worst fossil fuels. For example, Citi has provided $45.41 billion in financing to companies behind fracking, and Barclays $28.82 billion since 2015.
What's in the Banking on Climate Chaos report?
The report looks at 60 private-sector banks and their lending and underwriting of debt and equity issuances to major fossil fuel companies since 2016. It examines:
- Financing for the most damaging fossil fuels – coal, tar sands, Arctic oil and gas, offshore oil and gas, fracked oil and gas, and liquified natural gas (LNG).
- Financing for the top 100 companies involved in fossil fuel expansion, through new extraction or infrastructure.
The Banking on Climate Chaos 2022 report is published annually by Rainforest Action Network, BankTrack, Indigenous Environmental Network, Sierra Club, Oil Change International and Reclaim Finance.