Climate change represents an existential threat to humanity and is a driver of human rights violations around the world.
While Bank of America Corporation Human Rights Statement 2022 acknowledges “the significant risks that climate change poses not just to our business and our clients, but also to the human rights of individuals and communities affected by climate change,” your bank continues to provide financing for fossil fuel expansion, the very thing driving the climate crisis we are facing. Companies deepening the climate crisis are, by definition, complicit in those rights violations, including Bank of America.
Institutions that take their human rights responsibilities seriously must take immediate action to stop the expansion of fossil fuels and aggressively phase out fossil fuel financing in line with credible 1.5˚ C pathways. Anything less is an unacceptable abdication of leadership and puts financial institutions and their leaders squarely on the wrong side of history.
Since 2016, Bank of America has financed over $87 billion to the world’s top fossil fuel expanding companies. All financial institutions that continue financing fossil fuels are contributing to irreversible climate change-driven suffering and loss. As a leader among global banks, Bank of America’s actions threaten human rights of people around the world today and in the future.
As the 3rd worst funder of fossil fuel expansion in the world, we have a clear pathway for you to align with a world in which climate change is limited to 1.5°C and human rights are fully respected:
1. Adopt a policy to immediately end expansion financing
2. Adopt absolute emissions targets
3. Publish a detailed and credible transition plan
4. Develop and implement a comprehensive human rights due diligence mechanism that integrates climate policies
5. Designate the fossil fuel sector to trigger enhanced due diligence
6. Revise and enhance Indigenous rights and sovereignty policies
7. Aggressively phase out fossil finance and increase financing for a just transition
According to the IPCC, we have less than seven years to half global fossil fuel use if we have any chance of keeping our climate from overheating past the 1.5°C danger zone; we’ve already reached 1.2°C. Bank of America can no longer hide behind greenwashing and empty policies. The climate emergency has arrived, and its risks cannot be ignored, least of all by those profiting from it.
Bank of America must meet the urgency of this moment and truly commit to making transformational and just changes for people and planet before it’s too late.
All eyes are on you.