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If temperatures continue to rise, the world is at risk from global sea-level rise, which will flood many coastal cities as seen above in Bangladesh. NurPhoto / Contributor / Getty Images
The mounting climate emergency may spur the next global financial crisis and the world's central banks are woefully ill equipped to handle the consequences, according to a new book-length report by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), as S&P Global reported. Located in Basel, Switzerland, the BIS is an umbrella organization for the world's central banks.
<p>The report, titled<em> The Green Swan</em>, which plays on the idea of a "black swan" even warned that the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-crisis" rel="noopener noreferrer">climate crisis</a> could have a potentially seismic effect on the world's financial system and that central banks do not have the tools to handle it, as <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-climatechange-cenbank-bis/central-banks-cant-save-the-world-from-climate-change-bis-says-idUSKBN1ZJ19E" target="_blank">Reuters reported</a>. </p>
<p>"Climate change poses unprecedented challenges to human societies, and our community of central banks and supervisors cannot consider itself immune to the risks ahead of us," François Villeroy de Galhau, governor of the Banque de France, said in the report, as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/23/business/climate-change-central-banks.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The New York Times reported</a>.</p>
<p>The world's markets are in a bind. To limit global warming to less than 1.5 degrees Celsius requires leaving a large proportion of fossil fuel reserves in the ground, which creates a potential risk for the value of energy companies and the broader financial system. Yet, extracting those fossil fuels will almost surely push the world past the 1.5 degrees Celsius threshold, as <a href="https://www.spglobal.com/platts/en/market-insights/latest-news/coal/012120-climate-change-could-trigger-next-financial-crisis-bis" target="_blank">S&P Global reported</a>. </p>
<p>If temperatures continue to rise, the world is at risk from global <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/sea-level-rise" target="_blank">sea-level rise</a>, which will flood many coastal cities, while brutal <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/droughts" rel="noopener noreferrer">droughts</a> will make other parts of the world uninhabitable, as <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-climatechange-cenbank-bis/central-banks-cant-save-the-world-from-climate-change-bis-says-idUSKBN1ZJ19E" target="_blank">Reuters reported</a>.</p>
<p>Already, the world has the number of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/extreme-weather" rel="noopener noreferrer">extreme weather</a> events quadruple of the last four decades. The report warns that the financial markets are not protected against climate-induced losses. Only 44 percent of the write-downs caused by extreme weather events are now covered in the U.S. In Asia it's just 8 percent and in Africa only 3 percent, according to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-climatechange-cenbank-bis/central-banks-cant-save-the-world-from-climate-change-bis-says-idUSKBN1ZJ19E" target="_blank">Reuters</a>.</p>
<p>"I think we might be on the brink of observing something that might be behind the next systemic financial crisis," Luiz Awazu Pereira Da Silva, one of the book's main authors, told reporters, as <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-climatechange-cenbank-bis/central-banks-cant-save-the-world-from-climate-change-bis-says-idUSKBN1ZJ19E" target="_blank">Reuters</a> reported. </p>
<p>The report also warned that central banks, which spent the last decade pulling their countries out of a deep financial crisis, may spend the next decade coping with disruptions from the climate crisis, as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/23/business/climate-change-central-banks.html" target="_blank">The New York Times reported</a>.</p>
<p>The paper warned that central banks may be called on to bail out many communities that are devastated by climate emergencies.</p>
<p>"In the worst-case scenario, central banks may have to confront a situation where they are called upon by their local constituencies to intervene as climate rescuers of last resort," the <a href="https://www.bis.org/publ/othp31.pdf" target="_blank">report</a> said. "Fundamentally, climate-related risks will remain largely uninsurable or unable to be hedged as long as system-wide action is not taken."</p>
<p>The European Central Bank is starting to grapple with climate-related issues, according to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/23/business/climate-change-central-banks.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The New York Times</a>. The new president of the European Central Bank has pledged to put the climate crisis at the forefront of the bank's decisions. </p>
<p>"While we might not be ahead of the curve yet, we are not sitting on our bottoms doing nothing," Ms. Lagarde said during a news conference on Thursday, as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/23/business/climate-change-central-banks.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The New York Times</a>. "It is going to be an important matter that will be debated during the strategy review."</p>
<p>She noted that bank's employee pension fund is shifting investment to companies with lower carbon dioxide emissions.</p><p>Environmental activists who have campaigned to divest from fossil fuels took to <a href="https://twitter.com/billmckibben/status/1220338335828324352" target="_blank">Twitter</a> to highlight the report's findings. Bill McKibben, the founder of <a href="https://350.org/" target="_blank">350.org</a>, rewrote <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/23/business/climate-change-central-banks.html" target="_blank">The New York Times</a> headline "Climate Change Could Cause the Next Financial Meltdown." Instead, he edited it to, "Financial Systems Could Cause the Next Financial Meltdown," as <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/01/23/financial-institutions-grow-concerned-about-economic-impacts-climate-crisis" target="_blank">Common Dreams</a> reported.</p>
<iframe width="100%" height="150" scrolling="no" id="twitter-embed-1220338335828324352" src="/res/community/twitter_embed/?iframe_id=twitter-embed-1220338335828324352&created_ts=1579786306.0&screen_name=billmckibben&text=Since+the+banks+fund+the+fossil+fuel+system%2C+this+is+really+a+way+of+saying+%27Financial+systems++Could+Cause+the+Nex%E2%80%A6+https%3A%2F%2Ft.co%2FLcA6ocTV2X&id=1220338335828324352&name=Bill+McKibben" frameborder="0" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="T7FQLG1579883748"></iframe><p>"Since the banks fund the fossil fuel system, this is really a way of saying 'Financial systems Could Cause the Next Financial Meltdown.' Unless we <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/stopthemoneypipeline?src=hash" target="_blank">#stopthemoneypipeline</a>," McKibben <a href="https://twitter.com/billmckibben/status/1220338335828324352" target="_blank">tweeted</a>.<br></p><p>The <a href="https://www.bis.org/publ/othp31.pdf" target="_blank">report</a>, to its credit, noted that a new level of global cooperation is required, as <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-climatechange-cenbank-bis/central-banks-cant-save-the-world-from-climate-change-bis-says-idUSKBN1ZJ19E" target="_blank">Reuters</a> reported.</p><p>"A new global financial crisis triggered by climate change would render central banks and financial supervisors powerless," the BIS said. "We cannot be the only game in town."</p>
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Barclays pictured in Blackwall, London, England. Håkan Dahlström Photography / Flickr / CC BY 2.0
Shareholders of one of Europe's biggest banks are pushing for it to stop investing in fossil fuels, in the first shareholder action of its kind targeting a European bank.
<p>Eleven of Barclays institutional investors representing £130 billion in assets have filed a resolution to be voted on at the bank's annual general meeting in May. The resolution, organized by activist group ShareAction, has also been signed by more than 100 of the bank's individual investors. A recent study found that Barclays is one of the largest funders of fossil fuel companies in the world, and the largest in Europe. </p><h4>For a deeper dive:</h4><p><a href="https://climatenexus.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=d1f5797e59060083034310930&id=aaec2508bf&e=0afd421a28" target="_blank">The Guardian</a>, <a href="https://climatenexus.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=d1f5797e59060083034310930&id=2fff00cbe8&e=0afd421a28" target="_blank">Reuters</a>, <a href="https://climatenexus.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=d1f5797e59060083034310930&id=bb4fb4a46c&e=0afd421a28" target="_blank">Bloomberg</a></p><p><em>For more </em><a href="http://ecowatch.com/climate-change-news/" target="_blank"><em>climate change</em></a><em> and </em><a href="http://ecowatch.com/business/renewables/" target="_blank"><em>clean energy</em></a><em> news, you can follow Climate Nexus on </em><a href="https://twitter.com/ClimateNexus" target="_blank"><em>Twitter</em></a><em> and </em><a href="https://www.facebook.com/ClimateNexus/" target="_blank"><em>Facebook</em></a><em>, and sign up for daily </em><a href="http://climatenexus.us4.list-manage1.com/subscribe?u=d1f5797e59060083034310930&id=7c84c08aaa" target="_blank"><em>Hot News</em></a><em>.</em></p>
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Protesters hold signs at a protest inside JP Morgan Chase headquarters in Manhattan on Nov. 20. As Goldman Sachs divests from Arctic Oil explorations, Rainforest Action Network says the move shows other Big Banks like JP Morgan Chase can too. Erik McGregor / LightRocket / Getty Images
Goldman Sachs, one of the world's largest investment banks, gave a minor victory to the divestment movement by declaring that it will not fund an new arctic oil explorations, as CNN reported.
<p>Citing the importance of the Arctic's fragile ecosystem and its importance to indigenous populations, the investing giant said it will decline investing in any oil exploration in the Arctic, including the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/Arctic-National-Wildlife-Refuge" rel="noopener noreferrer">Arctic National Wildlife Refuge</a>.</p>
<p>"Oil development in the Arctic Circle is prone to harsh operating conditions, sea ice, permafrost coverage, and potential impacts to critical natural habitats for endangered species," Goldman Sachs said in its <a href="https://www.goldmansachs.com/s/environmental-policy-framework/#climateChangeGuidelines" target="_blank">Environmental Policy Framework</a>. "The unique and fragile ecosystems of the Arctic region also support the subsistence livelihoods of indigenous peoples groups that have populated certain areas in the region for centuries."</p>
<p>Goldman Sachs also said in its <a href="https://www.goldmansachs.com/s/environmental-policy-framework/#climateChangeGuidelines" target="_blank">policy framework</a> that it would not finance any new thermal coal mines or any <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/mountaintop-removal" rel="noopener noreferrer">mountaintop removal</a> projects. It added that where it has already invested, it would work with companies to diversify their strategies and reduce their carbon emissions. </p>
<p>"Companies' diversification strategy and carbon emissions reduction initiatives will be a key consideration in our evaluation of future financings with the goal of helping their transition strategy," the <a href="https://www.goldmansachs.com/s/environmental-policy-framework/#climateChangeGuidelines" target="_blank">Environmental Policy Framework</a> says. "We will phase out our financing of thermal coal mining companies that do not have a diversification strategy within a reasonable timeframe."</p>
<p>Goldman Sachs follows a dozen <a href="https://www.banktrack.org/campaign/banks_that_ended_direct_finance_for_arctic_oil_andor_gas_projects#_" target="_blank">global banks</a>, based largely in Europe and Australia, that pledged not to finance Arctic <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/oil-and-gas">oil and gas</a> development in the arctic. Several of the policies mention Arctic National Wildlife Refuge specifically, as <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/12/02/775439649/as-climate-warnings-grow-dire-energy-companies-face-a-new-frontier-of-threats" target="_blank">NPR</a> reported. Goldman is the first U.S. headquartered bank to make the same promise, as <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/16/investing/premarket-stocks-trading/" target="_blank">CNN</a> reported.</p>
<p>"Goldman Sachs's updated policy shows that US banks can draw red lines on oil and gas, and now other major US banks, especially JPMorgan Chase – the world's worst banker of fossil fuels by a wide margin – must improve on what Goldman has done," said Jason Opeña Disterhoft, a climate and energy campaigner at Rainforest Action Network, <a href="https://www.ran.org/press-releases/goldman-sachs-adopts-fossil-finance-policy/" target="_blank">which helped to lobby for the change</a>, as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/dec/16/goldman-sachs-to-stop-financing-new-drilling-for-oil-in-the-arctic" target="_blank">The Guardian</a> reported.</p>
<p>The move did win praise from environmental activists, including the Sierra Club, though it did not extend to fracking, which environmentalists had campaigned for. Nevertheless, the Sierra Club, which had lobbied Goldman Sachs to stop funding Arctic exploration, praised the bank's pledge. </p>
<p>"The Trump administration may not care about ignoring the will of the American people or trampling Indigenous rights, but a growing number of major financial institutions are making it clear that they do," said Ben Cushing, a Sierra Club campaign representative, as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/dec/16/goldman-sachs-to-stop-financing-new-drilling-for-oil-in-the-arctic" target="_blank">The Guardian</a> reported. "We hope other American banks will follow their lead."</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">BREAKING: <a href="https://twitter.com/GoldmanSachs?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@GoldmanSachs</a> just became the first major American bank to prohibit financing for new Arctic oil, thermal coal mining, and coal power projects worldwide! 👏👏 <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/DefundClimateChange?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#DefundClimateChange</a> <a href="https://t.co/y023bKh2Gr">https://t.co/y023bKh2Gr</a></p>— Ben Cushing (@bmcushing) <a href="https://twitter.com/bmcushing/status/1206310459902758913?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 15, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script><p>The divestment movement scored another large victory last week when insurance giant Liberty Mutual announced new policies that will see the company move away from protecting the coal industry. Liberty Mutual became the 18th global insurance company to put tighter restrictions on underwriting coal, according to the trade publication <a href="https://www.propertycasualty360.com/2019/12/16/liberty-mutual-announces-restrictions-to-coal-coverage-and-investing/?slreturn=20191116092313" target="_blank">Property Casualty 360</a>.</p><p>Liberty Mutual said it will no longer underwrite risk for companies where more than a quarter of their risk comes from coal, nor will it invest in the stock of companies that have more than 25 percent of their portfolio in coal, and it will phase out its coverage and its investments in any country that does not meet that threshold, according to a company <a href="https://www.libertymutualgroup.com/about-lm/news/articles/liberty-mutual-insurance-appoints-first-chief-sustainability-officer-oversee-continued-development-environmental-social-and-governance-agenda" target="_blank">statement</a>. </p><p>"We are committed to being a responsible global corporate citizen with a focus on environmental sustainability, supporting the transition to a low-carbon economy and investing in companies that show proven progress in this evolution," said Francis Hyatt, the company's newly appointed Chief Sustainability Officer, in the <a href="https://www.libertymutualgroup.com/about-lm/news/articles/liberty-mutual-insurance-appoints-first-chief-sustainability-officer-oversee-continued-development-environmental-social-and-governance-agenda" target="_blank">statement</a>. "We understand the shift from coal to clean energy is a journey and we recognize the role the insurance industry plays in supporting that evolution for our customers.</p><p>Activists welcomed the commitment from Liberty Mutual, but worried about the loopholes it created for itself. </p><p>"While Liberty Mutual's new policy sets out strong restrictions on insuring coal companies, it apparently does not rule out covering new coal-fired power plants or coal mines from companies with less than a 25 per cent stake in coal," said Elana Sulkshana, Rainforest Action Network's energy finance campaigner, in a statement, as <a href="https://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/3084685/insurer-liberty-mutual-halts-underwriting-for-coal-firms" target="_blank">Business Green</a> reported. "This is a major loophole because, to keep warming below 1.5C, the science is clear that the climate cannot withstand any new coal projects."</p><p>"Liberty Mutual must strengthen its policy to clearly rule out insuring any new coal mines or power plants, fully phase out coal across all insurance and investment activities in line with 1.5 C, and stop insuring the destructive tar sands sector," she added.</p>
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More than 400,000 people demanded Credit Suisse stop financing in environmentally harmful projects like pipelines and tar sands. Greenpeace
By Leola Abraham
Growing Resistance
The banking industry should stop funding extreme fossil fuel pipeline projects that impact the climate and violate human rights. These projects are risky for banks as they face mounting pressure from a growing resistance movement and increased reputational risk in a world that is recognizing the urgent need to rapidly tackle climate change to avoid climate catastrophe.
<p> Recently, more than 400,000 people, from 138 countries, signed a global petition demanding banks and financial institutions immediately end financial relationships with tar sands pipelines projects and other controversial pipeline companies such as Energy Transfer, the company that built the Dakota Access pipeline. </p><p>The Indigenous-led movement at Standing Rock against the Dakota Access pipeline further galvanized and helped grow a global movement against dirty oil pipeline companies. However, it saw the industry lash out in a variety of ways, including Energy Transfer's baseless <a href="https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/7-things-you-need-to-know-about-etps-lawsuit-against-greenpeace/" target="_blank">$900m SLAPP</a> (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) against <a href="https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/" target="_blank">Greenpeace</a> entities and others falsely accusing the groups of orchestrating the resistance at Standing Rock.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODgwODM3Mi9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyOTY1OTY1NX0.2_04FL9Y6pBXcungjzukk0BXiD8SfgHGgbX-e4Q8uOs/img.jpg?width=980" id="b7795" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="5b54446d84bca904f30cea71c4051c81" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">People march in support of the Standing Rock Nation at the Civic Center Plaza of San Francisco. The protest was one of many in a global day of action against the Dakota Access Pipeline calling on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to cancel the permit for the project.</small>
<small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Cy Wagoner / Greenpeace</small></p><p><strong>Growing Reputational and Investment Risk</strong><br></p><p>Despite the threats of bogus lawsuits and <a href="https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/greenpeace-report-still-too-far.pdf" target="_blank">concerning corporate behavior</a> by pipeline companies, many Indigenous Peoples, communities, and allies in the U.S. and Canada remain opposed to the dirty pipelines.</p><p>In North America, two out of the five proposed new tar sands pipelines—TransCanada's Energy East and Enbridge's Northern Gateway—were canceled after facing Indigenous and environmental legal challenges, widespread public opposition and changing economics.</p><p>In some cases the dirty pipelines cut across unceded Indigenous lands and threaten Indigenous rights by putting drinking water and precious ecosystems at <a href="https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/reports/oil-and-water/" target="_blank">risk of oil spills</a>. Knowing there is no safe way to transport oil, no community wants the risk of an oil spill. When a spill inevitably happens, the impacts on the community and the environment are immense and oftentimes irreversible.</p><p>Even with this information, new tar sands pipelines are proposed and facing opposition. In Minnesota, Enbridge's Line 3 pipeline is opposed by a coalition including tribal governments and landowners.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODgwODM2MS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyMTg1MzgxMH0.xVLFrChWAKLtp8tKFY-vMp5Z3emc7wteAEopSbO2gwY/img.jpg?width=980" id="bf308" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="4fadbd5ac8b67b28c5fade43c7739af6" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Enbridge's Line 3 expansion under construction near Hardisty, Alberta.</small>
<small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Amber Bracken / Greenpeace</small></p><p>Even the Minnesota Department of Commerce <a href="http://www.startribune.com/enbridge-oil-spill-insurance-inadequate-minnesota-regulators-say/490940011/" target="_blank">has communicated concerns</a> with the project. Also, recently a group of 13 young people, known as the Youth Climate Intervenors announced they planned to take the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission to court over the approval of Enbridge's Line 3 tar sands pipeline.<br></p><p>In Nebraska, Indigenous leaders from across the U.S. and Canada signed a formal declaration against TransCanada's Keystone XL pipeline and tar sands expansion in general.</p><p>In British Columbia, the Secwepemc Nation built solar-powered tiny houses to be placed in the path of Kinder Morgan's planned new Trans Mountain Expansion Project and Tsleil-Wautuh Water Protectors built a traditional <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/first-nations-watch-house-2546477424.html">Coast Salish "Watch House</a>" near the pipeline route, which played a central role in organizing resistance to the project.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODgwODM1OS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwMTA1NjU3OH0.ZHWGOztSDHJF7yfEvhvTKMbVIijom5-Lxm0y2mdXGoc/img.jpg?width=980" id="a4881" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="0d5bfff5ec29127f6f9ff2041f15653a" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Thousands gather in Metro Vancouver, British Columbia, for Indigenous-led "Protect the Inlet" mass mobilization against the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain Expansion pipeline. Here a "Watch House" is being built near the pipeline route.</small>
<small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Zack Embree</small></p><p>In Vancouver, an Indigenous-led protest saw more than <a href="https://www.greenpeace.org/international/story/15776/meet-the-activists-uniting-to-put-people-ahead-of-pipelines/" target="_blank">10,000 people</a> peacefully march demanding a stop to Kinder Morgan's pipeline. What followed was months of resistance including more than 200 people arrested and protests in <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/kinder-morgan-protest-in-montreal-1.4680146" target="_blank">Quebec</a> and across Canada, as well as in <a href="https://www.facebook.com/KOMONews/videos/greenpeace-and-kayaktivists-are-at-a-kinder-morgan-facility-in-seattle-where-the/1835724843162506/" target="_blank">Seattle</a>, <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/4151684/justin-trudeau-trans-mountain-pipeline-protest-london-theresa-may/" target="_blank">the UK</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNeGsGxo1Uk" target="_blank">Switzerland,</a> Spain, Australia, Fiji and around the globe.<br></p><p>Ultimately, Kinder Morgan deemed the project too great a financial and reputational risk and, in May, sold the Trans Mountain pipeline and the infrastructure for the Expansion Project to Justin Trudeau's Canadian government for CAN $4.5 billion. The move was a clear sign that dirty pipelines are risky investments for the companies, the banks and everyone involved.</p><div class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="c3f7769939c8d134e348616d33992ffb"><div class="fb-video" data-href="https://www.facebook.com/KOMONews/videos/1835724843162506/" data-allowfullscreen="true"></div></div><p><strong>Growing Line of Investors to Shun Tar Sands</strong><br></p><p>Trudeau's decision to purchase the pipeline also came after the Royal Bank of Scotland, a large global bank, and <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/bnp-paribas-to-stop-financing-shale-oil-sands-projects-1507730419" target="_blank">BNP Paribas</a> and <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-hsbc-strategy-fossil-fuels/hsbc-to-stop-financing-most-new-coal-plants-oil-sands-arctic-drilling-idUSKBN1HR1NR" target="_blank">HSBC</a>, Europe's two biggest banks, announced scale backs on financing tar sands projects.</p><p>Since then, other financial institutions such as the international financial services company, NN Group in the Netherlands, <a href="http://www.kallanishenergy.com/2018/10/15/nn-group-wont-invest-in-oil-sands-projects-pipelines/" target="_blank">announced its withdrawal</a> from tar sands oil and associated pipeline companies in Canada and the U.S. citing human rights concerns, pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions as the main reasons for its departure.</p><p>NN Group's announcement came on the heels of the <a href="https://www.greenpeace.org/international/press-release/18839/ipcc-report-points-to-stark-choices-ahead-but-reason-for-hope-and-action-greenpeace/" target="_blank">IPCC report</a> where the world's leading scientists <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/report/sr15/" target="_blank">sounded the alarm</a>, sending a timely message to world leaders that they must get serious and cut emissions from fossil fuels by half in the next 10 years if we are to avoid climate catastrophe.</p><p>Banks and financial institutions should wake up and face their role in the looming climate disaster. They must act on their commitments to the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/paris-agreement">Paris agreement</a>—by reviewing their policies and funding patterns and aligning their businesses with a world that limits climate change to 1.5 degrees Celsius, protects the environment, and respects human rights.</p><p>As the global petition is <a href="https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/who-are-the-dirty-dozen-banks/" target="_blank">delivered to banks</a>, the people-powered resistance movement to stop dirty pipelines will continue because our future depends on it. #StopPipelines</p><p><em><a href="https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/bios/leola-abraham/" target="_blank">Leola Abraham</a> is a senior communications practitioner at Greenpeace USA, based in Washington, DC.</em></p><p><em>Correction: The language in the main caption was updated for clarity. "More than 400,000 people demanded Credit Suisse stop financing," not "stop investing."</em></p>
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TIMOTHY A. CLARY / AFP / Getty Images
By Lindsey Allen
On Oct. 16, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Crédit Agricole and 91 other global banks met in Washington, DC, to revise the Equator Principles, industry-led due diligence standards meant to prevent banks from supporting environmentally and socially harmful projects.
<p>On the very same day, in a bitter irony, many of those same banks <a href="https://www.ran.org/endfinanceline3/" target="_blank">re-upped their support for Enbridge, the Canadian company behind the Line 3 tar sands pipeline, which tramples Indigenous rights</a> and is flatly <a href="https://tinyurl.com/y8np6vyt" target="_blank">incompatible with the goals of the Paris climate agreement</a>. They did so just days after the publication of a <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/report/sr15/" target="_blank">landmark United Nations report</a> showing the desperate urgency of taking concrete steps to tackle the climate crisis. It's as if the banks wanted to supply their own headline example of exactly why the Equator Principles are broken and in dire need of repair.</p><p>The current round of soul-searching around the Equator Principles dates back to the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) and the Indigenous-led campaign calling out the banks behind the project. DAPL was a crisis for those banks, and it was a scandal for the Equator Principles Association. How did such an obviously flawed project pass muster?</p><p>In response to <a href="https://www.equatorbanksact.org/home" target="_blank">activist pressure</a>, in 2017, the Equator Principles Association agreed to a <a href="https://tinyurl.com/y8a6qpuz" target="_blank">revision process</a>, including examining how the principles deal with the <a href="https://www.un.org/development/desa/indigenouspeoples/publications/2016/10/free-prior-and-informed-consent-an-indigenous-peoples-right-and-a-good-practice-for-local-communities-fao/" target="_blank">internationally accepted standard</a> that projects cannot be built unless directly impacted Indigenous communities give their free, prior and informed consent. The Equator Principles currently ignore these principles in rich countries like the U.S.—and ignore climate impacts everywhere.</p><p>It's astonishing that the banks were discussing those revisions on exactly the same day that many of them reaffirmed their support for Enbridge, when the Line 3 pipeline—the company's largest new investment—is in danger of becoming DAPL 2.0. In a clear echo of DAPL, Enbridge has failed to secure the free, prior and informed consent of Indigenous communities impacted by Line 3: <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/58a3c10abebafb5c4b3293ac/t/5b6bbf598985835b3fce16a2/1533787994006/LAWSUIT+Tribes+vs.+PUC+08082018.pdf" target="_blank">three Ojibwe tribes in the Minnesota portion of the pipeline's proposed path remain staunchly opposed</a>. There's been a steady and growing drumbeat of Indigenous-led <a href="https://www.parkrapidsenterprise.com/news/4493238-opposition-streets-activists-gather-downtown-bemidji-protest-line-3" target="_blank">legal and direct action, up to and including peaceful civil disobedience</a>.</p><p>Of course, all this comes on the heels of the historic report recently released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that describes food shortages, growing wildfires and massive coral reef destruction by 2040 unless we take immediate action to curb greenhouse gas emissions.</p><p>We urgently need to stop expanding and start phasing out fossil fuels to have any chance of meeting the goals of the Paris climate agreement. Flying in the face of these facts, the Line 3 pipeline would increase extraction and burning of tar sands, one of the dirtiest forms of oil. Enbridge is a company going in exactly the wrong direction: Last year, it even <a href="https://calgaryherald.com/business/energy/enbridge-defends-decision-to-sell-onshore-renewables-as-climate-action-increases" target="_blank">sold off a huge wind farm</a> <a href="https://sightline-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Enbridge-Line-3-Financing-Sightline-09-2018.pdf" target="_blank">to free up capital</a> to build Line 3.</p><p><a href="https://www.ran.org/the-understory/whos-banking-enbridge/" target="_blank">JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Crédit Agricole are the lead banks behind two key Enbridge credit facilities</a>, loans that act like giant credit cards for Enbridge to use as it pleases. <a href="https://sightline-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Enbridge-Line-3-Financing-Sightline-09-2018.pdf" target="_blank">They are crucial for Enbridge's ability to build Line 3</a>. When these loans are set to mature, banks have a choice: They can let them expire, or they can renew their support. One of Enbridge's credit facilities was <a href="https://www.ran.org/endfinanceline3/" target="_blank">renewed recently, with another scheduled for renewal in December</a>. At the beginning of October, Minnesota-based Native rights group Honor the Earth and a coalition of Indigenous and environmental organizations <a href="https://www.ran.org/endfinanceline3/" target="_blank">sent a letter</a> to those three banks laying out the case against Line 3 and calling on them not to renew their support.</p><p>Because Enbridge is <a href="https://www.ran.org/the-understory/whos-banking-enbridge/" target="_blank">funding Line 3 from its general corporate coffers</a>, the pipeline illustrates another fundamental shortcoming of the Equator Principles: Since <a href="https://tinyurl.com/y7ctbmhp" target="_blank">the standards only cover direct finance for projects</a>, Line 3 is outside of their scope, despite the project's clear impacts on Indigenous rights and the climate. This is a litmus test for the current revision of the Equator Principles, which should cover projects like Line 3 if they're going to be worth anything. As a start for companies sponsoring harmful projects, the Equator Principles evaluation should be triggered when these companies are up for credit renewals as well.</p><p>But JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Crédit Agricole can't hide behind the revision of the Equator Principles. They should immediately end their support for Line 3 by dropping their financing for Enbridge, so long as the company is pushing forward this destructive project. The December credit renewal will serve as another test. This time they should make sure they pass it.</p><p><em>Lindsey Allen is the executive director of <a href="https://www.ran.org/" target="_blank">Rainforest Action Network</a>.</em></p><p><em><span></span>This article was produced by <a href="https://independentmediainstitute.org/earth-food-life/" target="_blank">Earth | Food | Life</a>, a project of the Independent Media Institute, and originally published by <a href="https://truthout.org/articles/big-banks-just-flunked-their-own-test-on-climate-indigenous-rights/" target="_blank">Truthout</a></em><em>.</em></p>
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Fed Up With Big Banks That Fund Climate Crisis and Oppression, Community Coalition Demands Public Bank for New York
06 June 2018
Business
At a rally in front of the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday, community and social justice groups demanded that New York City divest from Wall Street and establish a public bank. 0debtzone / Twitter
Chanting, "Wells, Chase, B of A, public bank's a better way!" social justice groups rallied at the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday to demand that New York City divest from Wall Street banks and establish a public bank that is "expressly chartered to serve the public interest."
<p>"New York deserves a public bank that will invest in community needs, and be accountable to New York City residents—one that will prioritize housing ... and not prey on low-income New Yorkers," said Scott Hutchins, a member of the grassroots social justice group Picture the Homeless.</p>
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<p>The more than two dozen groups that gathered on Wall Street also included New York Working Families, the Pan-African Community Development Initiative and Food & Water Watch.<br></p><p>Investment in Wall Street banks like Wells Fargo, Bank of Americas and JPMorgan Chase is synonymous with harming the environment, propping up private prisons and putting working families at risk for financial collapse as well as pushing them out of New York neighborhoods, argued the groups.</p>
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<p>The rally came days after the Trump administration <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/05/31/paving-way-next-taxpayer-funded-wall-street-bailout-trump-fed-unveils-plan-gut%20" target="_blank">announced </a>it would roll back the Volcker Rule, which since 2014 has <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/v/volcker-rule.asp" target="_blank">prohibited</a> banks from using their accounts to conduct risky, speculative trading, in an effort to avoid another financial meltdown like the one that threw the country into a recession in 2008.<br></p><p>"With the Trump Administration and Congress handing out massive corporate tax breaks, rolling back federal financial reform, and gutting the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Wall Street is heading straight for another crisis," said Deyanira Del Rio, Co-Director of New Economy Project. "A public bank will allow New York City to deposit our public money with a bank that belongs to New Yorkers."</p><p>The crowd also heard from a Brooklyn resident whose rent has doubled in recent years and who spoke about the exorbitant fees New Yorkers pay to big banks every year, a student who spoke out against predatory loan practices and Wall Street's <a href="https://www.colorlines.com/articles/report-bank-investments-fossil-fuels-threaten-climate-change-goals" target="_blank">investment</a> of billions of dollars in fossil fuels that accelerate and worsen the climate crisis, and a social justice activist who told the crowd of JPMorgan Chase's <a href="https://splinternews.com/jamie-dimon-loves-private-prisons-1825653987" target="_blank">support</a> for private prisons.</p><p>"As long as the city continues to deposit its money in prison financiers like JPMorgan Chase, we will remain complicit in systems of oppression that profit off of incarcerating our communities," said Bamsa Eid of the racial and economic justice group Enlace. "It's time New York City puts its money where its mouth is, divests from Wall Street, and—through a public bank—invests in us."</p><p>A public bank would <a href="https://www.publicbanknyc.org/about" target="_blank">allow</a> New York's public money to go towards investing in small businesses run by locals, low-income housing, and financial services to immigrant and low-income communities.</p><p>"Here's the deal: New York City currently deposits billions of public dollars in the big Wall Street banks," said Stephan Edel, director of New York Working Families. "These bankers make millions off these deposits and high fees, while providing little benefit to the City, small businesses, and residents of New York. Our money should be put to use in our communities."</p><p> <em>Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/06/05/fed-big-banks-fund-climate-crisis-and-oppression-community-coalition-demands-public" target="_blank">Common Dreams</a>.</em><em></em></p>
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By Andy Rowell
Goldman Sachs, the investment bank at the heart of the global economy still doesn't get it.
<p>The bank, once famously described as "a great <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-great-american-bubble-machine-20100405" target="_blank">vampire squid</a> wrapped around the face of humanity," has a blinkered and fundamentally flawed vision when it comes to the future of the oil industry.</p><p>Monday, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-26/oil-s-seven-sisters-enter-a-golden-age-goldman-sachs-says" target="_blank">Bloomberg</a> reported that the hugely influential investment bank had issued a report on the "Seven Sisters," the world's largest oil companies and the bank argues that having "survived a life-changing crisis," the companies are "now poised to reap the rewards."</p><p>Having shed costs as prices plummeted, <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/big-oil">Big Oil</a> is now "in a sweet spot with rising oil prices and low operating costs, leaving them with the biggest cash-flow growth in two decades and boosting earnings," according to Goldman's report.</p><p>Goldman's Michele Della Vigna told Bloomberg: "We see this as the start of a new golden age for Big Oil's reborn Seven Sisters," with a "favorable environment for returns in the commodity."</p><p>This analysis is dangerously defective in that it seems to envisage a world where Big Oil can carry on drilling unimpeded for decades. But the bank has forgotten about climate change, stranded assets, shareholder actions and the growing number of lawsuits against Big Oil for their role in climate change, widely seen as the #Exxonknew scandal. Indeed, <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/schwarzenegger-oil-companies-murder-2546891443.html">recently Arnold Schwarzenegger said</a> he was planning on suing the companies for "murder."</p>
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<p>Furthermore, the website Business Green reported last week about another report, produced jointly by the environmental think tank E3G and the Oxford Sustainable Finance Programme. The top line says it all: "New research released today suggests the only commercially viable future for oil majors in a carbon constrained world is a gradual winding down of their operations or a quick sell off of assets."</p><p>The report had simulated a scenario under which the Seven Sisters had to shift their business models in line with what was agreed in Paris—a 2 C warming—which could put a whopping $2.3 trillion of oil and gas industry projects at risk as they are "incompatible" with a 2 C world.</p><p>As <a href="https://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news-analysis/3028951/bail-out-or-fade-out-oil-majors-face-tough-choice-on-climate-researchers-warn" target="_blank">Business Green</a><em> </em>reported "It found that oil firms' best chance of commercial survival is to rapidly diversify from fossil fuels into alternative technologies such as renewable energy, and gradually retire upstream fossil fuel assets."</p><p>This is far from a new dawn as you can get. "Out of five possible strategies, only 'managed decline' and 'first one out' are commercially viable options for International Oil Corporations," said Business Green.</p><p>Indeed, Monday one of the Seven Sisters, Royal Dutch Shell, produced its annual "<a href="https://www.shell.com/promos/meeting-the-goals-of-the-paris-agreement/_jcr_content.stream/1521983847468/5f624b9260ef2625f319558cbb652f8b23d331933439435d7a0fc7003f346f94/shell-scenarios-sky.pdf" target="_blank">Sky scenario</a>" report which outlined how we might collectively achieve the Paris agreement emission targets.</p><p>"Introducing Sky—an ambitious scenario to hold the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 C. This requires a complex combination of mutually reinforcing drivers being rapidly accelerated by society, markets and governments," said Shell.</p><p>Shell outlines, amongst others, "a change in consumer mindset means that people preferentially choose low-carbon, high-efficiency options to meet their energy service needs," a "step-change in the efficiency of energy use," plus carbon pricing, a massive increase in renewables, and unprecedented expansion of Carbon, Capture and Storage and vast reforestation.</p><p>No doubt others will pick apart Shell's plans for being unrealistic and flawed, especially around its own continuing investment in fossil fuels and issues such as carbon pricing and Carbon, Capture and Storage, but the main point is that the company's own analysts believe that the days of Big Oil are numbered.</p><p>And pressure is building day by day for the companies to divest: Monday, the <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/fae8e478-2eba-11e8-9b4b-bc4b9f08f381" target="_blank">Financial Times</a><em> </em>reported that shareholders are "preparing a renewed push" for Shell to "adopt more ambitious goals for tackling climate change." The company is expected to face a shareholder resolution at its AGM calling for a "radical shift" away from fossil fuels.</p><p>Mark Van Baal of <a href="https://follow-this.org/" target="_blank">Follow This</a>, who is leading the shareholder action, told the Financial Times: "More and more institutional investors want companies they invest in to commit to Paris. Because they foresee that they cannot make a decent return on their capital in a world economy disrupted by devastated climate change."</p><p>Maybe someone should tell the Goldman Sachs vampire squid that too, before they advise too many investors about this wonderful new golden era for Big Oil. Because that era is now history.</p><p><em>Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="http://priceofoil.org/2018/03/27/a-new-golden-age-for-big-oil-or-a-golden-goodbye/" target="_blank">Oil Change International</a>.</em></p>
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