For immediate release, February 23, 2019, 12PM EST
Video of disruption available here.
Washington D.C.–This morning activists disrupted JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon’s address to the National Governors Association Winter Meeting to call attention to the key role the bank plays in financing climate-destroying fossil fuel infrastructure projects.
“We want Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase, to hear us loud and clear: funding climate change is not what leadership looks like,” said Grant Marr, a researcher at Rainforest Action Network. “As the top Wall Street funder of tar sands pipelines and other fossil fuel projects, Chase should be held responsible for driving us toward climate crisis.”
JPMorgan Chase and Dimon have publicly committed to the Paris climate agreement, but remain a top funder of fossil fuels. JPMorgan Chase is the top US funder of tar sands, Arctic oil, and liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports. Its role in funding tar sands is particularly egregious. From the start of 2014 to the end of September 2017, JPMorgan Chase pumped $8.4 billion into the largest tar sands extraction and pipeline companies such as Cenovus, Canadian Natural Resources, TransCanada and Kinder Morgan. This is more than twice the tar sands funding of any other US bank.
This action is part of a broad, growing movement. Dimon has been hounded with the same message at many events across the country, including the bank’s AGM, various speaking engagements, and outside its headquarters. Activists are determined to continue hounding him until he takes responsibility for his culpability in funding climate change and announces a plan for aligning JP Morgan Chase’s activities with the Paris goal of keeping global warming under 1.5° Celsius.
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Rainforest Action Network preserves forests, protects the climate and upholds human rights by challenging corporate power and systemic injustice through frontline partnerships and strategic campaigns.