New York, NY, February 25, 2020 — This morning, JPMorgan Chase announced the details of a new climate policy that would prohibit the financing of additional oil and gas developments in the Arctic, and restrict lending to coal firms. The revised policy from the United States’s largest bank comes on the heels of those made by Goldman Sachs and BlackRock, as well as a dozen other banks around the globe.
While Chase announced this change, it avoided mentioning that it will continue to loan money to oil and gas projects in the remainder of the US and other parts of the world. In the three years following the adoption of the Paris Climate Agreement, Chase poured more than $196 billion into the fossil fuel industry and has historically been the largest funder of Arctic oil and gas of the major banks.
Caroline Henderson, Senior Climate Campaigner at Greenpeace USA, said:
“Chase’s policy change is only a small step forward when it comes to combating the climate crisis. While this recent announcement shows that banks and other financial institutions are on high alert, it isn’t nearly enough to address the urgent, growing problem at hand.
“What Chase’s small movement demonstrates, however, is the power of public pressure. The Stop the Money Pipeline coalition is committed to ramping up this pressure until Chase adopts a policy that phases out financing of fossil fuels overall. We, the public, are watching — and we are ready to hold bank executives accountable for their toxic actions.”
The JPMorgan Chase policy is live online, additional analysis can be found here.
Contact:
Katie Nelson, Strategic Communications Specialist, +1 (678) 644-1681, [email protected]
