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Many of us are transferring our investments to greener options and driving fuel-efficient vehicles. Some are installing solar panels to scale back our carbon footprints or biking extra. But are we supporting the financing of local weather chaos via our banking actions? Despite our greatest intentions, are we not directly supporting investments in fossil gas corporations and tasks?
Bank.Green lately introduced its Fossil Free Banking Alliance to assist empower climate-conscious customers to maneuver their cash away from banks that finance the local weather disaster. Alliance members have been Fossil Free Certified by Bank.Green and don’t finance fossil gas corporations or tasks.
Why help fossil-fuel-free banking?
We must dramatically cut back the usage of pure gasoline, coal, and oil. Yet we nonetheless see the event of recent pipelines and tasks, in addition to the fortification of fossil gas infrastructure. Without ample financing, many of those tasks couldn’t proceed. The better the funding in fossil fuels, the slower the transition to renewable energy and power effectivity initiatives.
From 2016 to 2020, 60 of the world’s largest industrial and funding banks invested $3.8 trillion in fossil fuels. Yet, it’s exhausting for people to know such details about a given financial institution with out conducting intensive analysis. The Fossil Free Banking Alliance was created to advertise and assist customers determine inexperienced banking providers.
“For too lengthy, conventional banks funneled trillions of {dollars} into the fossil gas business with out sharing that info with their clients,” says Ando’s CEO, J.P. McNeill. “We encourage others within the business to do the appropriate factor and be a part of us in being proudly Fossil Free Certified.”
A motion to divest from fossil fuels
At the time of publication, solely nine banks comprise the Fossil Free Banking Alliance. Ideally, the alliance could have a ripple impact, encouraging different monetary establishments to observe. The initiative can even assist banks get the popularity they deserve for his or her management on this space.
“There are a number of fossil-free banks on the market that don’t have a approach of shouting about it but,” says Zak Gottlieb, director and co-founder of Bank Green. “Fossil Free Certification is the best strategy to sign to clients, professionals within the banking sector, and most of the people {that a} sustainability-conscious monetary establishment is placing its cash the place its mouth is.”
Individual actions to assist inexperienced the banking business
Bank.Green is a not-for-profit “that goals to coach the general public on the environmental destruction funded by the banking business whereas fostering an empowered neighborhood to take motion.” Its web site has a tool for researching banks that don’t help fossil fuels.
Even if there isn’t a fossil-free financial institution itemizing to your location, otherwise you’re merely not prepared to change banks, you’ll be able to nonetheless make a distinction. Express your considerations about your cash getting used to assist fund fracking, oil and gasoline pipelines, fossil gas energy stations, and different unsustainable actions that hurt the planet.
The objective: collective motion influences the banking business to divest itself from fossil fuels. The consequence? One step nearer to a extra sustainable world.
