Big banks greenwashing role in financing fossil fuel firms for projects damaging Amazon — report

Report says the Amazon rainforest is the world’s most important terrestrial carbon sink and home of biodiversity, yet it is degrading towards a point of no return.

Five of the world’s biggest banks are “ greenwashing” their role in the destruction of the Amazon, according to a report that indicates their environmental and social guidelines fail to cover more than 70% of the rainforest.

The institutions are alleged to have provided billions of dollars of finance to oil and gas companies involved in projects that are impacting the Amazon, destabilising the climate or impinging on the land and livelihoods of indigenous peoples.

The banks say they follow ethical policies that help to protect intact forests, biodiversity hotspots, indigenous territories and nature reserves. 

However, the investigation says it has found geographical and technical limitations on their ability to monitor and achieve these stated goals.

The report was produced by the watchdog organisation Stand.earth and the Coordinating Body of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin (COICA). The organisations mapped the extent of the environmental and social governance (ESG) commitments of five leading funders of fossil fuel operators in the South American biome. 

Those banks — Citibank, JPMorgan Chase, Itaú Unibanco, Santander and Bank of America — together account for more than half of the loans to companies in this sector.

The analysis found on average, 71% of the Amazon is not effectively protected by the five banks’ risk management policies for climate change, biodiversity, forest cover, and indigenous peoples’ and local communities’ rights.

On the positive side, the study commended the British bank HSBC, which was once a major funder of destructive projects in the region but has not provided any financing since it adopted a 100% Amazon exclusion policy in December 2022.

The authors examined 560 transactions involving oil and gas activities by 280 banks over the past 20 years in the Amazon using Stand’s Amazon Banks Database.

They found two North American banks, Citibank and JPMorgan Chase, have made the most capital available — $2.43bn and $2.42bn respectively — to companies that operate oil and gas projects in the Amazon. The third biggest financier over the past two decades is Itaú Unibanco of Brazil. 

Spanish bank Santander is Europe’s largest financier of oil and gas in the Amazon and fourth largest worldwide, with almost $1.4bn in direct financing between 2009 and 2023. Fifth on the list was Bank of America. Last year, it was the number one financier of oil and gas in the Amazon.

The report urges banks to adopt a geographic exclusion covering all transactions involving the oil and gas sector in the Amazon. The authors say this is essential because the rainforest is the world’s most important terrestrial carbon sink and home of biodiversity, yet it is degrading towards a point of no return.

"We are literally living in a rainforest on fire, our rivers are either polluted or drying up,” said Fany Kuiru, the general coordinator of COICA. 

“Our fate is your fate: the Amazon is critical for the future of our planet. The banks try to wash their hands of the blame through vague policies but must be held accountable for the damage their money is causing to Amazonian indigenous peoples and the biodiversity of the rainforest."

Guardian

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