World's biggest banks spent almost €80bn funding fossil fuel industry last year, report shows

'Unfathomable' increase in investment locks in years more of coal, oil and gas production as the world continues to overheat, report finds. Picture: Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg

The world’s largest banks committed $906bn (€782.9bn) in financing to the fossil fuel industry last year, an “unfathomable” increase in investment locking in years more of coal, oil and gas production as the world continues to overheat, a new report has found.

The surge in new fossil fuel lending, up $64bn, or nearly 8%, on 2024, shows the world’s largest 65 banks are making decisions incompatible with international agreements to restrain rising global temperatures, according to the coalition of environmental groups behind the new analysis.

JPMorgan Chase is again the world’s leading financier of fossil fuels, according to the annual Banking on Climate Chaos report, after pushing $58bn to the sector last year — up 13% from 2024.

Bank of America committed the second largest amount to fossil fuels last year, followed by Japanese banks MUFG and Mizuho Financial. Citigroup, another US bank, rounds out the top five.

“Last year was the first year where we were hoping to see a continuous decrease in historical numbers, but we actually saw that increase and then that continues this year,” said Caleb Schwartz, a policy analyst at Rainforest Action Network, one of the groups behind the report.

A JPMorgan Chase spokesperson said: “As one of the world’s largest financiers of energy, we support the full range of energy solutions and technologies, with a focus on reliability, affordability, security and long-term resilience. We believe our data reflects our activities more comprehensively and accurately than estimates by third parties.” 

In 2015, countries agreed in the Paris climate deal to strive to avert a breach of 1.5C in global heating above preindustrial times, beyond which the world will suffer ever more ruinous heatwaves, floods, droughts and other climate-fueled disasters.

Avoiding such a threshold would require the near elimination of planet-heating emissions from fossil fuel production. Since the Paris agreement, however, the world’s largest banks have funnelled $8.7tn to the fossil fuel industry to dig and drill for more coal, oil and gas.

Scientists now predict the 1.5C limit will be breached imminently, with a recent string of record hot years set to be further surpassed this decade.

In the wake of the US and Israel’s attack on Iran, which has escalated the global cost of oil and gas, several of the world’s largest fossil fuel companies have reported spiralling profits this year.

The Guardian

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