Breakup with Banks That Fund Fossil Fuels

It’s time to Breakup with Banks That Fund Fossil Fuels. If your bank supports the fossil fuel industry then tell them you don’t like what they’re doing and you’re going to move to a more sustainable bank that cares about your health and the health of your community and the planet.

Banks that fund the fossil fuel industry are actively causing climate chaos

Banks can finance fossil fuels in a variety of ways:

through project finance (lending to fossil fuel companies for specific projects),
with general corporate lending
in capital markets activity such as underwriting.

Take Action Right Now because taking action really works!

write your bank a letter and post it (see sample letters below)
use Social Media to tell your bank you don’t like what they’re doing
post an image of cutting up your card and tag it with your bank’s name (see sample images)
mockup a photo of you holding a sign in front of your bank (see sample signage)
tell all your friends and family to take action too
share this post and the sample letters
switch to a sustainable bank like Triodos and Cooperative Banks

Banks that finance fossil fuels

The chart below shows banks operating in the UK finance fossil fuels industry, and how they fared inassessment of their environmental policies.

If your UK bank isn’t in the list above look for it below under one of the larger bank names

Barclays
HSBC – including First Direct (HSBC brand) and M&S Money (50% HSBC)
NatWest Group – including NatWest, RBS, and Coutts
Lloyds Banking Group – including Lloyds, Halifax, and the Bank of Scotland
Santander – including Carter Allen
Tesco
Citigroup

US Banks Supporting the Fossil Fuel Industry

The six largest US banks have financed over $1.8 trillion in fossil fuels since 2016, which is more than a quarter of the global total:

JPMorgan Chase The top financier of fossil fuels, committing $40.8 billion in 2023.
Citi The worst funder of fossil fuel expansion since the Paris Agreement, providing $204 billion since 2016.
Bank of America One of the top funders of fossil fuels.
Wells Fargo One of the top funders of fossil fuels.
Goldman Sachs One of the top funders of fossil fuels.
Morgan Stanley One of the top funders of fossil fuels.

Banks are not legally required to disclose all fossil fuel financing. However, some banks have made public commitments to not finance fossil fuels. The Global Alliance for Banking on Values (GABV) is a network of financial institutions that use finance to deliver sustainable economic, social, and environmental development.

When writing to your bank that funds fossil fuels, use the following info for posted letters and social media mentions. (See the sample letter in the next section)

BARCLAYS BANK

For the attention of:Barclays CEO, C. S. Venkatakrishnan

@Barclays
https://x.com/BarclaysUKHelp
Send them a message from the ‘Contact us’ section of your Barclays app.
Freepost Barclays Customer Relations – You don’t need to include a postcode or add a stamp for your letter to reach us, but please remember to take the postal service into account for our response time.

HSBC

For the attention of:HSBC CEO, Noel Quinn

Mail by post to: HSBC Customer Service Centre, BX8 1HB@HSBC_UK

LLOYDS

For the attention of:Lloyds CEO, Charlie Nunn

25 Gresham Street, London EC2V 7Hhttps://x.com/LloydsBank/ @LloydsBank

NATWEST

For the attention of:NatWest CEO, Paul Thwaite

250 Bishopsgate, London, EC2M 4AA@NatWestGroup

JP MORGAN

For the attention of:JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon

CEO Jamie Dimonhttps://www.instagram.com/jpmorgan@jpmorgan

SANTANDER

For the attention of:Santander Group CEO, Hector Grisi

and

For the attention of:Santander UK CEO Mike Regnier.

Customer Relations. Santander Consumer Finance. Santander House, 86 Station Road, Redhill, Surrey RH1 1SR.@santanderuk

Sample Letter to CEO’s:

Fill this in to send to your bank telling them you want them to stop funding the fossil fuel industry NOW!

For the attention of (input the name of your bank’s CEO from the abovelist)

Dear Mr.(the name of your bank’s CEO),

I am writing to you to register my deep concern at your financing of fossil fuel industry.

I appreciate the service you have provided me but your operations are at odds with my own values and mission. We are facing a climate emergency so I am choosing to only use the service of companies that make this a better world.

Since 2016, you have financed the fossil fuel sector that is driving the climate crisis with $145bn. You have provided $55bn of financing for the top 100 key oil, gas, and coal companies expanding fossil fuels in the same time frame. Any financing of fossil fuel expansion will derail any chance the planet has of achieving the 1.5C target.

Not only must we stop burning fossil fuels, we must also scale up investments in renewables. However, your Energy Supply Banking Ratio – according to BloombergNEF – is well below what is needed, at 1.2:1 for 2022.

I acknowledge the steps you have taken so far in updating your policies – including the exclusion of direct financing for new oil and gas fields, and infrastructure whose primary use is in conjunction with new fields. However, your policies still allow you to provide general entity level finance to fossil fuel expanders, and your assessment of client transition plans needs to be tougher. There is much evidence from credible sources, such as Carbon Tracker and the Transition Pathway Initiative, showing that oil and gas majors are not aligned to global temperature goals. We must transition away from fossil fuels as agreed at COP28.

We are asking that you:

1. Put clients on notice that they must stop expansion activity – HSBC should publicly serve notice to existing clients that are involved in fossil fuel expansion activity that they will cease to provide any new finance to them unless they stop expansion. (ENTER YOUR BANK’s NAME) must outline robust escalation routes if clients do not act. This must cover all forms of finance, including general corporate finance, and capital markets underwriting. (ENTER YOUR BANK’s NAME) should not provide any kind of finance to potential new clients which are involved in fossil fuel expansion.

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2. Exit relationships – If existing clients do not act to stop fossil fuel expansion, HSBC should implement their escalation/exit strategies.

3. Commit to significantly scaling up climate solutions finance, targeting at least a 6:1 energy supply financing ratio by 2030 for low-carbon compared to fossil fuels.

We hope to continue engaging with you and may look to take action in the future if you continue to finance fossil fuel expansion. This may include but is not limited to moving our accounts, in part or in whole; removing any benefits or promotions you receive from us; or voting against you at your AGM.]

We know this is a growing issue on which well-known institutions have already taken action, and we may collaborate with partners where appropriate to drive action.

As a client [and a shareholder] we wish to meet with you to discuss this further. Please let us know your availability.

Yours faithfully,

(Add your name)