The world’s largest investment banks have provided more than $700bn of financing for the fossil fuel companies most aggressively expanding in new coal, oil and gas projects since the Paris climate change agreement, figures show. The New York bank is one of 33 powerful financial institutions to have provided an estimated total of $1.9tn to the fossil fuel sector between 2016 and 2018. Other top financiers of fossil fuel companies include Citigroup, Bank of America and Wells Fargo. The figures update the group’s Banking on Climate Change 2019 report from April, which showed the practices of key investment banks were aligned with a climate disaster. That’s leveraging the best of what a bank would offer.”The big four state-owned Chinese banks, which have no fossil fuel financing policies, have dominated services for coalminers and coal power companies since 2016.

Source: The Guardian October 13, 2019 11:00 UTC