SAN FRANCISCO: Since the Paris Agreement in 2015, the world’s 60 largest private sector banks have provided US$4.6 trillion to the fossil fuel industry, including US$742 billion last year.

The 13 annual Banking on Climate Chaos report, produced by Rainforest Action Network, BankTrack, Indigenous Environmental Network, Oil Change International, Reclaim Finance, Sierra Club and Urgewald, also reveals the banks provided US$185.5 billion in 2021 to the 100 companies doing the most to expand fossil fuels.

Overall sector financing remains dominated by JPMorgan Chase, Citi, Wells Fargo and Bank of America who together provided US$1.172 trillion to companies in the last six years.

JPMorgan Chase tops the list of 60 banks having provided US$382.4 billion to the industry since 2015 - including Russia’s energy giant Gazprom with US$1.1 billion last year.

The report also describes how banks that joined the Net-Zero Banking Alliance last year simultaneously financed the expansion plans of oil and gas companies including:

• US$10 billion to Saudi Aramco (Citi, JPMorgan Chase);
• US$1.5 billion to Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. (Citi);
• US$12.5 billion to Qatar Energy (Citi, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs);
• US$10 billion to ExxonMobil (Citi, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley).

The analysis suggests that of the 44 banks currently committed to net-zero financed emissions by 2050, 28 still don’t have a meaningful no-expansion policy for any part of the fossil fuel industry.

According to the NGO-led study, in the next two months leading Wall Street banks are expected to face shareholder resolutions calling on them to stop financing fossil fuel expansion and align their business practices with limiting global warming to 1.5°C.