Protect the Amazon, Protect the Planet!
Source: https://amazonwatch.org/news/2022/0331-protect-the-amazon-protect-the-planet
Author: Cinthya Flores
In the year 2021, the International Energy Agency released the most comprehensive and groundbreaking study yet, outlining requirements to meet the Paris Agreement goal of keeping global warming below 1.5°C. It argued that if we are to meet those goals, there can be no development of new oil and gas fields and no new coal-fired power stations or coal mines. Simply put, banks and insurance companies should not spend a single dollar more on expanding fossil fuel exploration and production globally – much less in the Amazon. Yet, it continues to happen. Wall Street banks and insurance companies are the largest financial backers of corporations expanding their fossil fuel operations. Since 2015, six U.S. banks have loaned nearly $500 billion to the 100 corporations most aggressively expanding fossil fuel operations. Of those six banks, JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup are known to be heavily financing Amazon destruction according to our research with Stand.earth. It’s time to hold them to account.