Banks still pumping hundreds of billions of dollars into 'carbon bomb' projects around the planet

A new report in The Guardian reveals that in 2022 alone, banks financed $150 billion in new fossil fuel projects. Last year, the newspaper and its partners identified “carbon bombs” in an academic database, finding that these are the single biggest sources of fossil fuels. Two French non-profits, Good and Éclaircies, as well as European media have now used this data to map out the companies that operate the carbon bombs and the banks that finance them:

The carbon bombs—425 extraction projects that can each pump more than one gigaton of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere—cumulatively hold enough coal, oil and gas to burn through the rapidly dwindling carbon budget four times over. Between 2016 and 2022, banks mainly in the US, China and Europe gave $1.8tn in financing to the companies running them, new research shows. [...]

Between 2016 and 2022, the research shows, banks in the US alone were responsible for more than half a trillion dollars of finance to companies planning or operating carbon bombs. The single biggest financier was JPMorgan Chase, providing more than $141bn, followed by Citi, with $119bn, and Bank of America, with $92bn. Wells Fargo was the seventh-biggest financier, with $62bn. 

Also in the top 10 were three Chinese banks – ICBC, Bank of China and Industrial Bank (China) – and three European ones – BNP Paribas, HSBC and Barclays.