We are writing this email to notify you about a new report released yesterday by the Rainforest Action Network and BankTrack. The report, Bankrolling Climate Disruption: The Impacts of the Banking Sector’s Financed Emissions, spells out the swift action that the banking sector must take to account for and reduce its biggest impact on the climate: the emissions it finances. You can also read the blog post on the report here.
The report finds that:
· Time is running out for banks to finance the transition to a low-carbon economy – By the end of the decade, locked-in emissions from new infrastructure will make it impossible to limit global greenhouse gas concentrations to safe levels, making it imperative for banks to begin to reduce their financed emissions footprints.
· The risks involved with financing carbon-intensive companies are growing – A bank’s financed emissions exposes it to reputational risks from a climate-aware public and to financial risks from relationships with companies that will struggle to compete in a carbon-constrained economy.
· Banks have made environmental financing commitments, but have failed to measure their climate impacts – Major U.S. banks have committed over $100 billion to green financing initiatives, but have not actually measured the net greenhouse gas reductions achieved by these initiatives.
· Financed emissions measurement tools have been put into practice, but not by private sector banks – Public sector institutions such as the U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corporation have led the way for their private sector counterparts by setting targets to reduce emissions from their financing portfolios.
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