European Banks Funded $55 Billion of Polluting Projects in 2021
- Non-profit ShareAction calls on investors to target AGMs
- HSBC, Barclays and BNP Paribas among top oil and gas backers
An excavator at the Jaenschwalde open-cast lignite mine in Grieen, Germany.
Photographer: Krisztian Bocsi/BloombergEurope’s largest lenders potentially face another awkward round of shareholder meetings after providing $55 billion of funding to companies expanding their oil and gas operations last year, despite widespread pledges to slash such funding.
ShareAction, a London-based nonprofit known for pushing climate-change resolutions at HSBC Holdings Plc and Barclays Plc, is calling on shareholders to demand that banks halt all investments in new fossil-fuel production, according to a statement Monday. They cite the International Energy Agency, which has warned there’s no room for such investments if the planet is to limit warming to the critical threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius.