2024 was the hottest year ever recorded — and communities around the world were devastated by climate disasters like hurricanes, droughts, flooding, and so much more. Every dollar that banks provide for fossil fuel production and distribution contributes to furthering climate chaos, which is taking a devastating toll across the world, especially on those communities that contribute little to the climate crisis. Without rapid action, we’re on course to surpass 2°C or more — with devastating consequences for all of us.
It is unacceptable that U.S. banks — including JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citi, Wells Fargo, Morgan Stanley, and Goldman Sachs — are continuing to pour hundreds of billions of dollars into fossil fuel companies and their dirty expansion projects, being responsible for a combined $386.7 billion in fossil fuel expansion from just 2021-2024. To keep the world within 1.5° C of warming and to avoid the most devastating harms of climate chaos, fossil fuel expansion must end immediately, and fossil fuel assets must be phased out in a rapid and equitable way to pave the way for a just energy transition.
The Big 6 U.S. Banks are some of the world’s biggest bankers of fossil fuels, and as such, we have a set of clear demands for you:
1. Exclude all finance for fossil fuel expansion immediately.
2. Adopt absolute financed emissions reduction targets for oil, gas, and coal aligned with a rigorous 1.5ºC scenario.
3. Demand robust, 1.5ºC-aligned transition plans for all existing fossil fuel clients.
4. Protect human rights and the rights of Indigenous Peoples.
5. Scale up financing for a just and fair energy transition.
These are necessary steps for aligning the Big 6 U.S. banks with a world in which climate change is limited to 1.5°C and human rights are fully respected.
We need to see meaningful policies NOW. You must defund climate chaos – before it is too late.