18th April 2024: HXR protest over JPMorgan funding of health and climate emergency

On 18th April, HXR members protested outside JP Morgan’s offices. They also delivered a letter to Luke Nelson, Head of Sustainability, highlighting the lack of a response from their last letter in October 2023. JP Morgan Chase is the biggest global financer of fossil fuels, financing $39.240 billion in 2022. [1]

Health professionals held a huge banner demanding JPM stop bankrolling oil and gas. They also performed a moving ‘planet medic’ action, where health professionals attempt, but fail, to resuscitate a dying earth.

Their letter pointed out that global heating and its effects had continued to get worse since last October:

● NASA and the World Meteorological Organisation have both confirmed that 2023 was the warmest on record [2,3], with “hundreds of millions of people around the world” experiencing extreme heat [2]

● The United Nations have highlighted the devastating and increasing effect of the climate emergency on hunger and poverty, with poor and vulnerable people and developing countries carrying the heaviest burden [4]

● The World Economic Forum has stated that extreme weather events are likely to become the biggest global risk over the next decade, They anticipate that by 2050 the climate crisis could cause an additional 14.5 million deaths, $12.5 trillion in economic losses and $1.1 trillion in extra costs to healthcare systems around the globe. The WEF are clear that there is still a small window of time for the global economy to decisively reduce emissions and enact strategies to safeguard human health from the impacts of climate change. [5]

● In the UK the UKHSA’s Health Effects of Climate Change (HECC) report provides evidence on how the climate is already impacting health in the UK and how health threats from heat, mosquitos, flooding and food security will become increasingly significant in the near
future.[6]

[1] Banking on Climate Chaos 2023 – Banking on Climate Chaos
[2] NASA Analysis Confirms 2023 as Warmest Year on Record, Jan 2024 https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-analysis-confirms-2023-as-warmest-year-on-
record/
[3] World Meteorological Organisation, March 2024. State of the Global Climate 2023. https://wmo.int/publication-series/state-of-global-climate-2023
[4] People and Planet: Addressing the Interlinked Challenges of Climate Change, Poverty and Hunger in Asia and the Pacific. 2024 United Nations, Asian Development Bank, United
Nations Development Programme file:///C:/Users/Dave/Downloads/undp-rbap-sdg-partnership-report-2024.pdf
[5] Quantifying the Impact of Climate Change on Human Health Jan 2024 World Economic Forum https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Quantifying_the_Impact_of_Climate_Change_on_Human_Health_2024.pdf
[6] Health Effects of Climate Change, Dec 2023 UK Health Security Agency https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/climate-change-health-effects-in-the-uk