MEDIA AVAILABILITY: Stand.earth Climate Finance Experts on the Latest Banking on Climate Chaos Report

GLOBAL – This week, the latest Banking on Climate Chaos report revealed 65 banks financed $869 billion in fossil fuels in 2024. Since the Paris Climate Agreement was signed in 2016, these banks have financed in excess of $7.9 trillion in coal, oil and gas. 

As one of 480 endorsing organizations of the report, climate finance experts with Stand.earth offered the following statements:

Richard Brooks, Stand.earth Climate Finance Director:

“It is unconscionable, that in 2024, the hottest year on record, the world’s largest banks overwhelmingly increased financing of fossil fuels. It is clear that banks are not only slowing the energy transition, they are totally misaligned with the very clear climate science, risking our lives for the sake of profits. 

Martyna Dominiak, Stand.earth Senior Climate Finance Campaigner:

“This report shows the true scale of the global madness we’re in. While glaciers melt and communities are displaced, banks like Santander, Citi, and BBVA are still answering the ‘drill, baby, drill’ call — choosing profit over survival.

“Fossil fuel financing is on the rise again, even in the world’s most vulnerable biomes. At Stand.earth, we’ll soon release new data revealing which banks are most complicit in funding oil and gas expansion in the Amazon. As we head toward the first climate COP hosted in the rainforest, communities and civil society are coming together like never before. We won’t let this destruction go unchecked.”

Hannah Saggau, Stand.earth Senior Climate Finance Campaigner: 

“Shame on mega-banks Citi, JPMorgan, Wells Fargo and others for bankrolling more of Big Oil’s destruction during the hottest year on record. The mask is off: Wall Street is ditching climate action now that it’s no longer politically convenient, leaving the rest of us to suffer the consequences. We will not let banks get away with risking our future while they profit.”

Report authors include BankTrack, the Center for Energy, Ecology & Development, Indigenous Environmental Network, Oil Change International, Rainforest Action Network, Reclaim Finance, Sierra Club, and urgewald.

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