FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

Tuesday, May 18th 2021

 

Stop The Money Pipeline Coalition Responds to International Energy Association’s Call to Stop New Oil Investments to Hit Net-Zero Emissions

Marking a major milestone for climate justice and financial sustainability advocates, the International Energy Association called for an immediate end to all financing of new fossil-fuel supply projects to slash net carbon emissions to zero by 2050. “Beyond projects already committed as of 2021, there are no new oil and gas fields approved for development in our pathway,” the report says. The road map to net-zero contrasts current plans of financial institutions such as JPMorgan Chase—the largest financier of fossil fuels—which just last Thursday announced interim targets for reducing carbon intensity, but avoided commitments to end investments in new oil and gas projects. The IEA produced the report ahead of the COP26 climate talks set for November 2021 in Glasgow, Scotland.

The announcement comes on the same day as the annual shareholder meetings of JPMorgan Chase and Shell, and ahead of the annual shareholder meetings of ExxonMobil (May 26), MUFG (June 29), most of which are expected to draw climate change shareholder proposals.

The Stop the Money Pipeline Coalition is a coalition of more than 150 organizations working to hold the financial backers of climate chaos accountable. The coalition has issued the following set of demands for the Biden Administration in advance of the Glasgow climate talks in November:

• Require financial institutions to phase out financing for fossil fuels and deforestation. Mandate banks and other financial institutions implement plans to phase out investments in fossil fuel or deforestation-causing commodities or businesses on a timeline consistent with science-based targets, and prohibit financial institutions from directly owning these assets.

• Invest in Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities, remedy past harms, and promote a clean, just transition for workers in the fossil fuel sector and frontline communities.  Study and design a public investment authority to offer long-term investment in communities for green infrastructure, without a profit or revenue requirement, and housing projects that create good union jobs with targeted hiring of local frontline communities. Study and design a program for making reparative payments and investments to frontline communities to remedy past harms.
• Hold all firms accountable to respecting Tribal Nations’ treaty and sovereignty rights. Ensure that banks and other financial institutions cannot proceed with financing projects that will impact a tribal community without the Free, Prior, and Informed Consent of the Tribal Nation(s) concerned. Uphold and honor Tribal Nations’ treaty rights.

 

Members of the Stop the Money Pipeline coalition released the following statements: 

Jackie Fielder, Stop the Money Pipeline:“We are glad the International Energy Association agrees with what scientists, frontline communities, and climate justice advocates have been demanding for years: financing for new fossil fuel projects must end today.”

Ben Cushing, Sierra Club: “Companies, financial institutions, investors, and governments around the world have been using International Energy Association’s projections for years to justify continued fossil fuel expansion. With this breakthrough scenario, the IEA just removed one of the last common excuses used to justify continued expansion of fossil fuel extraction. The financial industry is out of excuses. It’s past time their actions met their rhetoric and committed to no new expansion of or investment in oil, gas, or coal.”

Erika Thi Patterson, Action Center on Race and the Economy: “It’s about time that the International Energy Association listens to science and demands from frontline communities of color. Today’s announcement is an important and overdue step that puts big oil and gas companies, banks and other financial institutions on notice: Stop financing fossil fuel projects to give us a fighting chance at averting climate catastrophe and to end the ongoing harms of environmental racism!”

Dallas Goldtooth, Indigenous Environmental Network:  “This report reinforces the demands from frontline Indigenous communities, that any action short of completely divesting from Oil & Gas is not acceptable. Any and all investors are not only assuming tremendous risk by continuing to wedge bets in fossil fuels, but are culpable in the violation of Indigenous and Human Rights.”

Moira Birss, Amazon Watch: “The IEA has finally caught up with what Indigenous peoples, scientists, and advocates have been saying for years: we must keep fossil fuels in the ground in order to have a livable future. But let’s be clear: to ensure a planet that is both livable and just, we cannot rely on gas, bioenergy, or unproven carbon capture and storage.”

Anna Vickerstaff, 350.org: “In the past, the IEA has been hesitant to call time on the fossil fuel industry — not anymore. When this conservative institution is demanding an end to fossil fuels, it really is time for governments to ditch the net-zero rhetoric and take immediate action to cut their support for polluting corporations.”

Jason Disterhoft, Rainforest Action Network:  “The IEA report calls JPMorgan Chase’s bluff on fossil fuels. Paris alignment means no expansion of fossil fuels, period. The bank’s new 2030 intensity targets, which are compatible with massive fossil expansion, were never “Paris-aligned,” but now even JPMorgan Chase should be too embarrassed to claim that they are. The report also gives Citi, Wells Fargo, Bank of America and every other net zero bank their marching orders. To follow through on their commitments, they have to stop financing expansion of fossil fuels — no more excuses.”

###