30th September 2024: Joint XR Health professional and Scientist outreach action at JPM Bank, London

JPM is the world’s biggest financier of fossil fuels and fossil fuel expansion, investing over $434 billion since the 2016 Paris Agreement.  JPM know that ‘business as usual’ risks a ‘catastrophic outcome’ and ‘increases the likelihood that the changes in the climate will be irreversible’, as stated in their own Risky Business report which was leaked to the press in 2020. This report also shows that they know the climate crisis is a threat to survival, will likely cause global disruption to nature and our societies within the next few decades, and threatens a huge health crisis for humanity, ‘with the burden falling unequally, with children, the elderly, and those in developing countries most vulnerable’.

In addition, JPM funds environmental destruction in the Amazon rainforest – the world’s largest carbon sink

• JPM is the second biggest foreign funder of oil and gas exploration in the Amazon.
• JPM is implicated through its investments in companies causing environmental destruction, violations of indigenous rights and health threats from oil spills in the Amazon.
• JPM is “greenwashing” their role in the destruction of the Amazon, leaving over 84% of the Amazon unprotected by their environmental and social policies.

What banks do on climate matters!

The world’s top 60 banks have funded the fossil fuel industry with $7tn (£5.6tn) since the Paris agreement, with nearly half – $3.3tn – going towards fossil fuel expansion which is incompatible with the Paris Agreement to prevent the worst impacts of a heating climate.

WHAT CAN FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS DO?

• * Banks must pledge to urgently and decisively phase out finance for fossil fuel projects and commit to Paris aligned absolute carbon emissions targets without accounting tricks.
• * Banks must commit to financing a just transition to renewable energy.
• * We need the banks to improve and expand their environmental and social policies, to protect the environment and human rights without greenwashing.
• * Banks can use their leverage over clients of other high-emitting business sectors, such as steel, cement, petrochemicals, meat and dairy industry, manufacturing, aviation, construction, etc. to steer these industries to go fossil free, including by
  providing the finance for this transition. 

See https://www.banktrack.org/campaign/banks_and_climate for more information

WHAT CAN EMPLOYEES DO?

We’re all complicit, whether we like it or not, in our financial, political and social systems that currently depend on fossil fuels. We’re all living in the messy real world, so we desperately need change for good. Business as usual must shift. You can help make change happen from the inside and out.

To those working in finance – could you play a role in working out how best and most rapidly to bring about this shift, push for change, and hold your employer to account?

Here are some things you may find helpful:

1)  Talk about it: You are probably not alone in your concerns. Speaking about it with peers might encourage them to do so, too. Change happens when a critical mass of people in a system understands the current reality and reach a broad consensus on the need for change.

2) Question decisions: If you feel your company is making unethical investments or decisions, or something sounds like greenwash, talk with your colleagues and raise your concerns either collectively or individually.

3) Be strategic: If you’re in a position to do so, shape policies and investment strategies that consider the climate and environmental risks, to drive responsible investment where possible.

4) Community: Join other like-minded professionals – LinkedIn is a great place to find such spaces or join a group in your local community. You could also get together with peers and start a Sustainability/ Climate ERG (Employee Resource Group) which exist in other large organisations like BP, Shell or Microsoft. Another example from a UK bank is NatWest

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/green-futures-rise-sustainability-ergs-radius- business-ltd/