Latest reports suggest that banks pumped more than $150bn last year into companies whose giant “carbon bomb” projects could destroy the last chance of stopping the planet heating to dangerous levels.
Findings show that the carbon bombs – 425 extraction projects that can each pump more than one gigaton of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere – cumulatively hold enough coal, oil and gas to burn through the rapidly dwindling carbon budget four times over.
Between 2016 and 2022, banks mainly in the US, China and Europe gave $1.8tn in financing to the companies running them, new research shows.
Shruti Shukla, an energy campaigner at the National Resources Defense Council, which was not involved in the investigation said that the climate rhetoric did not match up with what was happening on the books. “We need to rapidly decline our production of fossil fuels and support for fossil fuels, whether that’s regulatory or financial,”.
The carbon bombs, which were first identified in an academic database by the Guardian and partners last year, are the single biggest sources of fuels that release planet-heating gas when burned. Data for Good and Éclaircies, two French non-profits, and several European media outlets have now used publicly available data to map out the companies that operate the carbon bombs and the banks that finance them.
Read also: Data shows France is Europe’s biggest supporter of ‘carbon bomb’ projects
Although the datasets did not match up, were out of date or had an unclear operation status, for some projects, the researchers said that they were confident that at least 20 of the 425 have started running since 2020, most of which are coalmines in China, while three projects have been stopped. In total, the researchers estimate that there are now as many as 294 projects running and at least 128 that are yet to start.
Research shows that between 2016 and 2022, banks in the US alone were responsible for more than half a trillion dollars of finance to companies planning or operating carbon bombs. The single biggest financier was JPMorgan Chase, providing more than $141bn, followed by Citi, with $119bn, and Bank of America, with $92bn. Wells Fargo was the seventh-biggest financier, with $62bn.
Story was adapted from the Guardian. Scientists warn global heating is accelerating
