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Dear subscriber,
Welcome to BankTrack’s June news digest. The preceding weeks saw some of the last annual shareholder meetings of the season. South Africa’s Standard Bank again faced a barrage of questions on fossil fuels, and a shareholder resolution on climate change won the support of 99.7% of shareholders. Japanese bank SMBC faced a global week of action on fossil fuel divestment as well as a shareholder proposal on emission reduction targets and ending finance of fossil fuel expansion.
In the weeks leading up to the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China’s AGM, #GoCleanICBC, the #StopEACOP coalition and partners delivered a petition signed by 2,591 oil affected people to offices of the bank, and participated in an email action urging the bank to become a Just Transition financing leader.
Deutsche Bank’s AGM was again in focus this month. Last month, the bank's fund unit DWS was raided by police over allegations of greenwashing. This week, BankTrack joined Peruvian Indigenous leaders Shapiom Noningo Sesen and Ankuash Mitiap Kapuchak to demand the bank to stop working with Petroperu, and Fridays for Future demanded the bank stop lending to fossil fuel giants like TotalEnergies.
In the Netherlands, Bertha Zúniga Cáceres, daughter of the Goldman Environmental Prize Winner Berta Cáceres Flores, who was murdered in March 2016, filed a criminal complaint against Dutch development bank FMO, alleging complicity in violence, corruption, misappropriation of funds and money laundering in the context of the Honduran Agua Zarca dam.
Finally, a new report by Global Witness exposed how financial institutions are still backing the meatpacking company JBS to the tune of almost $1bn in shareholdings. The investigation found that JBS sourced cattle from 144 ranches in the Amazon state of Pará situated on land subject to illegal clearance.
With best wishes,
The BankTrack Team.
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Banks in this digest
Barclays
Citi
Crédit Agricole
Deutsche Bank
FMO
HSBC
ICBC
Intesa Sanpaolo
JPMorgan Chase
RBC
Santander
SMBC
Standard Bank
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As the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China holds its Annual General Meeting, civic groups call for the bank to stop funding fossil fuels
#StopEACOP, 350.org and BankTrack, June 23
The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), one of the three financial advisors of the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP), among other fossil fuel projects, is holding its Annual General Meeting (AGM), where shareholders will be making important decisions regarding the financial institution’s policies and investment plans. In preceding weeks, under the rallying calls #StopEACOP and #GoCleanICBC, 350.org, the StopEACOP coalition and partners have led a campaign to pressure the bank to cease financing fossil fuel developments.
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Climate groups call on Shell's bankers to stop Jackdaw gas field
BankTrack, June 3
Following the UK government's decision on Wednesday to give "final regulatory approval" to Shell's Jackdaw gas field in the North Sea, a coalition of climate organisations has sent a letter to the oil major's biggest bankers calling for a halt to the project. Read more...
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Climate activists challenge Standard Bank’s plans to fund fossil fuel expansion in Africa
BankTrack, AFIEGO, Bank on our Future, FoE Mozambique, JustShare & others, June 1
At Standard Bank’s AGM on 31st May, climate activists gathered to demand answers from the bank on its involvement in the EACOP pipeline, gas extraction in Mozambique, and its support for fossil fuel expansion on the continent. Read more...
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Civil Society news on banks
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Shareholders urge Japanese companies to take urgent climate action
350.org Japan, FOE Japan & others, June 29
Shareholders put four of Japan’s largest companies in the spotlight on climate-risk management, including SMBC Group and the owners of JERA, the largest thermal power generator in Japan. Read more...
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Daughter of murdered Honduran human rights activist files criminal complaint against Dutch Development Bank FMO
Global Justice Association, June 28
Bertha Zúniga Cáceres has filed a criminal complaint against the Dutch development bank FMO, alleging complicity in violence, corruption, misappropriation of funds and money laundering. Read more...
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Banks back beef giant JBS despite links to widespread deforestation, land grabbing & slave labour in the Amazon
Global Witness, June 23
A new investigation reveals JBS sourced cattle from 144 ranches that contained over 10,000 football pitches of illegal Amazon clearance. HSBC, Barclays, Santander, Deutsche Bank, BlackRock & JP Morgan are among the major banks still backing JBS. Read more...
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Crédit Agricole takes first step to phase out from the oil and gas sector
Reclaim Finance, June 22
As part of its “Ambitions 2025” plan, the bank announced decarbonisation targets for the automobile and oil and gas sectors. This is a first step towards phasing out finance for the oil and gas sector, but will not be enough to align with 1.5°C. Read more...
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Strengthened Race to Zero criteria require GFANZ to support fossil fuels phase-out
Reclaim Finance, June 17
The Race to Zero Campaign, an initiative of the UN climate convention, has released an updated set of criteria for its members. These mention for the first time the need for “phasing down and out all unabated fossil fuels as part of a global just transition” and require members to “restrict the development, financing, and facilitation of new fossil assets”. Read more...
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UN’s Race to Zero Campaign throws down the gauntlet to GFANZ on climate and fossil fuels
Reclaim Finance, June 15
Paddy McCully at Reclaim Finance says: “These new Race to Zero criteria throw down the gauntlet to Carney and Bloomberg and the GFANZ alliances and will require major improvements in what the alliances demand from their members." Read more...
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New report: Despite ‘no deforestation’ rhetoric, major brands and banks failing to stop deforestation and human rights abuses
Rainforest Action Network, June 14
Major multinational brands and banks are failing to stop deforestation and human rights abuses in their business practices, finds the new report by RAN. Read more...
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Finance goes to war: Intesa Sanpaolo between Russian fossil industry and US gas
ReCommon, June 8
Intesa Sanpaolo is the Italian financial group with the closest relations with Moscow, looking after all major Italian investments in Russia and vice versa. Read more...
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Publication: Japanese bank financing of the East African Crude Oil Pipeline
#StopEACOP, CIEL, OCI, June 6
A new backgrounder highlights the significant ESG risks of the EACOP project, the reputational and financial risks to the Japanese banks. Read more...
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What’s next in the growing movement to push banks on climate action?
Sierra Club, June 6
As the climate crisis continues to ravage communities around the world, investors are waking up to the reality that climate change poses a massive threat to our financial system, and their own portfolios. Read more...
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Protests around the world demanding stronger climate measures ahead of SMBC shareholders’ meeting
Fossil Free Japan, June 3
A global action was held to demand that SMBC Group cease its support for fossil fuels, deforestation, and human rights abuses. Read more...
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New Report: Financing a Fossil Future – Tracing the Money Pipeline of Fossil Gas in Southeast Asia
Center for Energy, Ecology, and Development (CEED), June 3
Southeast Asia is spiraling into a fossil future thanks to a massive fleet of gas projects and the financial institutions backing them, a new report reveals. Read more...
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Joint NGO open letter to TNFD calls for human rights approach, impact reporting and more
BankTrack & Forest & Finance Coalition, May 25
28 civil society organizations sent an open letter with feedback to the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) calling for a human rights approach, mandatory reporting and disclosure and more. Read more...
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Jackdaw gas field, UK
Jackdaw is one of the biggest remaining gas fields in the North Sea, and its high CO2 content makes it an especially polluting field. No project which expands the fossil fuel industry is compatible with the Paris Climate Agreement. Read more...
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Arauco
Celulosa Arauco y Constituición S.A. (Arauco) is Chile’s second largest pulp producer with a total capacity of 3.9 million tonnes of pulp. Arauco has a 50+ year history of land grabbing and conversion of large tracts of land, with severe social and environmental impacts on wider areas. Read more...
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- From Peru to Uganda, activists call on Deutsche Bank to drop fossil finance, June 28 2022, Reuters
- The Cash Before The Killing. Newly released documents reveal international funding trail preceding the murder of Berta Cáceres, June 23 2022, The Intercept
- Banks urged to stop funding Shell if it proceeds with Jackdaw gas field, June 3 2022, the Ferret
- U turn? MNC banks now okay with Adani 'interest' in emissions-intensive industry, June 2 2022, Counterview
- CBIRC Releases the Green Finance Guidelines for Banking and Insurance Sectors, June 2 2022, China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission
- East African Crude Oil Pipeline: Fueled by RBC, Stand.earth
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Citi: Still Financing Indigenous Rights Violations & Biodiversity Loss in the Amazon
AmazonWatch
Citi is the top bank providing financing and underwriting to companies active in the Amazon oil and gas industry. Watch the amazing video about Citi's complicity made in partnership with Stand.earth, Rainforest Action Network, and the Exit Amazon Oil and Gas campaign here.
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Tell banks to exit Amazon oil and gas NOW!
AmazonWatch
The fossil fuel era is over! Join us and demand that Citigroup, UBS, and JPMorgan Chase immediately adopt a policy to exclude financing and investments for all oil and gas activity in the Amazon biome.
Send an email here.
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