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Bankrolling Extinction: Top 10 banks financing biodiversity losses

The loans and underwriting provided by some of the world’s largest banks to companies operating in economic sectors which governments and scientists agree are the primary drivers of biodiversity destruction have been quantified for the first time.

A new report, Bankrolling Extinction, finds that over the course of 2019, 50 global
banks together provided loans and underwriting worth more than USD 2.6 trillion to the food, forestry, mining, fossil fuels, infrastructure,
tourism and transport and logistics sectors, all of which have been
identified as primary drivers of the global extinction crisis.

It also finds that none of the banks have chosen to put comprehensive policies or sufficient systems in place to monitor or measure the impact of their loans on biodiversity.

The ten banks with the largest exposure to biodiversity destruction risks were Bank of America, Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, Mizuho Financial, Wells Fargo, BNP Paribas, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial, HSBC, SMBC Group and Barclays . On average, each of the 50 banks was linked to finance with biodiversity loss risk of USD 52 billion.

With the species extinction rate at up to 10,000 times higher than the
background rate and scientists warning of ‘biological annihilation’,
Bankrolling Extinction shows how banks have largely evaded scrutiny on these issues and are playing a key role in a system that free rides on biodiversity, with the regulators and rules which govern them protecting them from the consequences

The report states that the financial sector is bankrolling the mass
extinction crisis, while undermining human rights and indigenous sovereignty.

It calls for:

* Banks to disclose and radically reduce their impact on nature and
stop finance for new fossil fuels, deforestation, overfishing and
ecosystem destruction.
* Governments to stop protecting banks’ role in biodiversity
destruction and rewrite the rules of finance to hold banks liable for
the damage caused by their lending.
* People everywhere to have a say in how their money is invested, and a right to stop banks from causing serious harm to people and planet.

Bankrolling Extinction was launched by collaborative group
portfolio.earth, a collective of individuals working to take on the
finance industries’ role in contributing to the destruction of nature.

Professor Kai Chan, University of British Columbia and a leading
author of the IPBES Global Assessment report, said: “A global
sustainable economy sits at the centre of humanity’s much-needed
transformation to meet the climate and ecological crises.

“And at the centre of that sit the banks and the finance institutions whose investments power development around the globe. Imagine a world in which projects can only raise capital when they have demonstrated that they will contribute meaningfully and positively to restoring the
planet’s bounty and a safe climate for all? That’s the future this
report envisions and builds toward.”

Moira Birss, Climate & Finance Director of Amazon Watch said: “Right now in the Amazon rainforest, industries like agribusiness, mining, and fossil fuels are trampling Indigenous rights and causing extensive
deforestation, bankrolled by lending and underwriting from big banks.

“If the Amazon rainforest is going to survive, and if we are to have a
future on this planet, financial institutions must stop funneling
trillions of dollars into the very industries unabashedly driving
biodiversity loss.”

Todd Paglia, Executive Director at Stand.earth,  said: “Today’s visionary  financial institutions are those that invest in projects that
regenerate our oceans, forests, and climate. We need to reverse the
damage of several centuries of banks investing in the destruction of  the heart, lungs, and limbs of our planet — and do so in short order.”

Mark Campanale, Founder & Executive Chair of the Carbon Tracker Initiative, said: “In a complex world of growing consumer power linked to rising global living standards, we are seeing unfettered demand for
nature’s scarce resources.

“With a collective failure on the part of Governments to act, and accelerated by profit motive, little stands in the way of bad corporate actors determined to exploit, mine or plunder  the world’s oceans, atmosphere and forests. Yet one powerful bulwark can stand in the way of corporate greed, namely the banking system.

“This new report reminds us that there is no time to lose for
Governments and financial regulators to create an appropriate
rules-based system to oversee and ensure that banks cannot continue to finance this corporate planetary plunder, unconstrained and unnoticed.”

Hana Begovic, Earth Advocacy Youth, said: “Reading this report, it is increasingly clear that today’s global system is allowing and, in many ways, encouraging humanity to keep pushing the boundaries of the planet’s regenerative capacity and defying Natural Law that governs the planet’s life systems.

“By maintaining a global system
fundamentally based on eternal economic growth and never-ending
exploitation of natural elements, we allow for life on this Earth to be considered human-owned property whose point of existence is to be exploited and commodified for human benefit and economic profit.

“Banks  must wake up to their part in fuelling the ecological crises and take responsibility for their actions and decisions which clearly contribute to the massive destruction of ecosystems. As young
advocates for the Earth system, we demand the banks take
responsibility and change their practices which currently try to
maintain this outdated paradigm.”

Robin Smale, Director of Vivid Economics, said: “Banks are a key part of the system that is destroying biodiversity. They provide the
capital to the supply chain. The current legal system protects them
from responsibility and liability, and therefore reduces their
business incentive to help address damaging activities. Removing these legal protections would force banks to more systematically address the biodiversity impacts of their financing, and transform activities across major supply chains.”

Liz Gallagher, portfolio.earth, said: “Half the world’s GDP is indebted
to nature and the services it provides. We need to reset the
financial system so it is held fully accountable for its impacts.”

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