Banking on Climate Chaos: Fossil Fuel Finance Report 2022

Published by a coalition of civil society groups, this is the 13th annual report, offering the most comprehensive global analysis on fossil fuel banking to date. It documents the reality of the largely business-as-usual financing of the fossil fuel industry, showing how this funding has increased over the six years since the Paris Agreement was signed.

The world’s 60 largest private banks provided USD$742bn in fossil fuel lending during 2021 alone, the study shows, including $185.5bn to 100 companies which are doing the most to expand the fossil fuel sector. Fossil fuel financing in 2021 was higher than in 2016, with a total of $4.6tn provided to the industry since then.

Fossil fuel financing remains dominated by four US banks – JPMorgan Chase, Citi, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America account for one-quarter of all financing identified over the last six years.

The report begins with a league table of fossil fuel funding, a summary of the key findings, and an overview of the methodology used in the assessment. Chapters include fossil fuel expansion, tar sands oil, arctic oil and gas, offshore oil and gas, fracking, liquefied natural gas and coal mining and electricity generation. Each chapter contains its own league table highlighting lending by individual financial institutions to these activities.

The report also includes a section on Indigenous resistance to fossil fuel developments and ends with a series of demands, including:

• a prohibition on all financing for all fossil fuel expansion projects;
• an immediate end to all financing for fossil fuel extraction, combustion, and infrastructure, on an explicit timeline consistent with limiting global warming to 1.5°C;
• setting targets to end the absolute climate impact of overall financing activities on a 1.5°C-aligned timeline;
• respecting all human rights, particularly the rights of Indigenous Peoples to their water and lands.

Banking on Climate Chaos was authored by Rainforest Action Network, BankTrack, Indigenous Environmental Network, Oil Change International, Reclaim Finance, Sierra Club, and Urgewald, and is endorsed by over 500 organizations from more than 50 countries around the world.