Global banks led by JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and Bank of America boosted fossil fuel financing by more than one-fifth in 2024, in a major reversal of the trend of recent years, an annual report by climate campaigners found.
Coal, oil and gas finance provided by the world’s 65 largest banks by assets rose by $162bn to $869bn, according to the 16th report produced by a coalition of groups co-ordinated by the Rainforest Action Network, based on lending and underwriting data from more than 2,800 companies.
This marked the first time that the total value of fossil fuel funding failed to decline since 2021, the year when many banks announced their support for net zero targets at the UN COP26 climate summit in Glasgow.