Raising banking standards
Banks wield huge power over our economy
The financing decisions made by banks today will influence the world we live in tomorrow. For example, when banks finance fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas, they help to accelerate the climate crisis, which threatens the health of people and planet. The banking sector is not yet doing its bit to avert the worst consequences of climate change or biodiversity loss. This has to change.
We partner with a range of stakeholders, including asset managers, asset owners, NGOs and individual retail investors to demand banks phase out financing to polluting activities, and increases the flow of capital into low-carbon alternatives. We also engage with banks directly and push them to enact robust fossil fuel phase-out policies.
We win change in three key ways:
Engagement
We coordinate private and public engagements between banks and their institutional and retail shareholders. For example, we meet with banks to discuss our research and provide them with tailored recommendations, and we help their investors to file resolutions and send letters to them.
Find out moreResearch
We assess banks based on their performance on climate change and biodiversity, examining things like their fossil fuel policies. See below in the resources section for our latest research.
Find out moreCampaigns
We work with investors, NGOs and indigenous groups to hold banks accountable. For example, we help affected communities make their voices heard at the AGMs of banks financing destructive projects in their local areas.
Find out moreOur current campaign priorities:
Oil and Gas
Oil and gas was responsible for roughly 50% of energy-related greenhouse gas emissions in 2022. The world’s largest 60 banks have provided fossil fuel giants with $6.3 trillion of financing since the Paris agreement was signed. This sector poses an existential threat to the health and habitability of our planet. We ensure banks develop targets and policies to phase out their financing of oil & gas on pathways aligned with the Paris Agreement.
Find out moreSustainable Finance
Banks play a key role in shifting capital away from fossil fuels, and into the renewable energy and green infrastructure that is needed for the world to transition to a low carbon economy. We are calling on banks to set ambitious, coherent and transparent sustainable finance targets, which allow them to scale up sustainable finance at the pace scientists say is required for this transition.
Find out moreDecarbonisation Targets
Banks' decarbonisation targets are set by banks to mitigate climate risks and reduce negative impacts. They should effectively set out by how much a bank plans to reduce emissions or financing of polluting activities. We call for targets to be aligned with 1.5C-aligned scenarios, to take full responsibility for the emissions embedded in banks' capital markets transactions, and to ensure absolute emissions reductions for the fossil fuel sector.
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