Tell MUFG: No More Methane Gas Projects!
Join us in demanding that Japanese megabank MUFG withdraw their funding from the disastrous Rio Grande LNG project. This massive methane gas terminal threatens to poison local communities and set off a climate bomb that would impact us all.
Make your voice heard. Sign the petition now!
We are writing to urge MUFG to immediately end its relationship with Royal Golden Eagle and NextDecade’s Rio Grande LNG methane export terminal.
If built, the Rio Grande LNG methane export terminal would violate Indigenous rights, exacerbate environmental racism, destroy healthy wetlands, and add millions of tons of greenhouse gas to the atmosphere. These risks have been meticulously laid out in the report Rio Grande Valley: At Risk from Fracked-Gas Export Terminals. By financially supporting the proposed Rio Grande LNG methane export terminal, your company is supporting the continued environmental racism in the Gulf by perpetuating the displacement, pollution, and physical harm of impacted communities.
There’s nothing natural about methane gas expansion (aka so-called liquefied “natural” gas or LNG). Methane gas has more than 80 times the warming power of carbon dioxide over the first 20 years after it reaches the atmosphere. Methane is not a bridge fuel, but a continuation of fossil fuel expansion.
Banks must phase out financing of fossil fuels, MUFG is going the wrong direction with financing USD $33 billion of fossil fuels in 2023. Time is running out for transformative action to tackle the climate crisis. As the IPCC report puts it: “There is a rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a liveable and sustainable future for all.” Lengthy “transition periods” to continue business as usual are simply too little too late.
The United States Presidential Administration and associated Department of Energy have paused further approval for methane export terminals until climate and community impacts are assessed. While Rio Grande LNG is not directly affected by the pause, providing financial support for this project, or any support for this terminal poses both financial and reputational risks to your institution. MUFG has been a critical financier of NextDecade, offering nearly USD $2 billion in support of Rio Grande LNG, a company operating without 2030 or 2050 emissions targets.
MUFG is failing to implement its own environmental and social sustainability policies through its continued financial services to clients engaged in deforestation and rights violations, and driving climate change through its financing of LNG infrastructure. MUFG should take urgent action to halt this impunity, and adopt corporate group wide, NDPE for all forest-risk sector commodities.
We urge you to end your relationship with Royal Golden Eagle and NextDecade’s Rio Grande methane (LNG) export terminal.