US Banks Pledged to Fund Renewable Energy, But They Still Spend Way More on Fossil Fuels

“The sad reality is that the fossil fuel sector has only grown since Paris,” says Patrick McCully, climate and energy director for the Rainforest Action Network and one of the report’s authors. “The banks are following what the industry is doing, and the industry’s able to expand because it’s able to keep getting capital from the banks…It’s just this really alarming, really terrifying dynamic going on worldwide.”

By far, JP Morgan Chase is the biggest funder among the 33 banks assessed, putting $196 billion into fossil fuels from 2016 through 2018. Its money represents 10 percent of the industry’s total financing. Notably, the highest spending year for Chase—and many other top banks—was 2017, the same year President Trump announced the US would pull out of the Paris agreement.
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