Resolutions to end fossil fuel finance filed at Royal Bank of Canada, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, and Bank of America.
Indigenous lands of the Lenape Peoples (so-called New York, NY) – Today, New York City’s Comptroller announced they filed climate resolutions at major fossil fuel financing banks including Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase and Goldman Sachs calling on them to set 2030 absolute emissions reduction targets for energy and utility clients. These clients are the largest emitters of greenhouse gasses and major contributors to exacerbating the climate crisis. New York City Comptroller Brad Lander manages the five New York City pension funds valued at more than USD $242.38 billion.
“This action from the New York City Comptroller is exactly the kind of climate leadership institutional investors around the world must take,” said Richard Brooks, Stand.earth Climate Finance Program Director. “This is one of the biggest institutional investors in the world stepping forward to challenge banks’ lending and underwriting practices to align with science and justice. It’s time to cut greenwashed net-zero rhetoric once and for all.”
New York City filed the resolution at RBC, in which it has 293 thousand shares valued at $28.92 million, and co-filed with New York State’s Comptroller (state pension value at USD $233.2 billion) at Bank of America (7.74 million shares valued at $239.04 million). New York City filed similar resolutions at JPMorgan Chase (2.99 million valued at $412.91 million) and Goldman Sachs (437 thousand valued at $168.82 million).
“Royal Bank of Canada’s awful record on climate change, including continued financing of fossil fuel expansionists, has caught the attention of some of the continent’s biggest and most influential pension plans” added Sarah Beuhler, Stand.earth Climate Finance Strategist. “RBC is dragging Canada backwards on our climate ambitions. Now, with New York City wielding its institutional investor power, all shareholders must support these climate resolutions at the bank’s AGM this Spring.”
In November, Stand.earth released a report revealing RBC’s surging fossil finance surpassed CAD $9.2 billion – within one year of joining GFANZ (Oct 2021 – Oct 2022) – despite its public commitments to reach net-zero financed emissions. Since the 2016 Paris Climate Agreement was signed, RBC has pumped more than USD $201 billion (CAD $262 billion) into fossil fuel companies, making it the fifth worst fossil fuel financier in the world, and #1 in Canada.
According to the 2022 Banking on Climate Chaos Report, to be updated this coming March, in the last six years:
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Goldman Sachs has funded USD $119 billion in fossil fuels
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JPMorgan Chase has funded USD $382 billion in fossil fuels
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Bank of America has funded USD $232 billion in fossil fuels
The United Nations High Level Group on Net Zero, chaired by former Canadian Environment Minister Catherine McKenna, stated in a November report that all financial institutions should set absolute emissions targets to avoid greenwashing lending practices. Absolute targets, unlike intensity based targets currently set by major banks, can lead to actual, real world reductions in emissions.
Communities are gearing up to support climate resolutions around annual general meetings (AGMs) this spring. The resolutions including others to limit financing of the expansion of fossil fuels are in line with energy and emissions modeling by organizations like the International Energy Agency that state that the world should not build new coal, oil and gas infrastructure to keep temperature from rising more than 1.5 degrees. New infrastructure risks locking-in usage for decades.
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