The fossil fuel industry’s biggest backer, JP Morgan Chase, has pledged to end its financial support of coalmining and drilling in the Arctic. The bank is making the move after its own economists warned that humanity’s survival is under threat by the climate crisis; the withdrawal will help it to fund £153bn worth of clean energy and other sustainability projects instead.
It follows the lead of fellow US bank Goldman Sachs stating that it will not fund future oil drilling or exploration in the Arctic or the development of new mines for thermal coal, and the announcement by the world’s largest hedge fund, BlackRock, that it will no longer include companies in its portfolios that gain more than 25% of their revenues from thermal coal. Critics have pointed out, however, that despite JP Morgan’s new pledge, it will still fall short of the criteria to be included by BlackRock.
Investment charity ShareAction said JP Morgan needed to do more but its actions show that “even the world’s largest fossil fuel financier has no choice but to listen to its shareholders and civil society on climate change”. The bank recently commissioned a report on the climate crisis, which stated that although behavioural change is happening at the micro level – by individuals, companies and investors – this is unlikely to be enough to avoid disaster without action taken by financial authorities and governments.
Meanwhile, the UK’s biggest fund manager, Legal & General Investment Management, is set to launch its first fossil-fuel-free pension fund in 2020. It has made the move following criticism from clients that its ethical funds included stocks such as Shell. “It is clear that there is increasingly strong demand for pension products that give customers the choice to divest from oil,” said PensionBee, one of the fund manager’s biggest investors. Legal & General’s new fund product will also not include stocks in tobacco firms, weapons-makers and pure coal manufacturers.
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The fossil fuel industry’s biggest backer, JP Morgan Chase, has pledged to end its financial support of coalmining and drilling in the Arctic. The bank is making the move after its own economists warned that humanity’s survival is under threat by the climate crisis; the withdrawal will help it to fund £153bn worth of clean energy and other sustainability projects instead.
It follows the lead of fellow US bank Goldman Sachs stating that it will not fund future oil drilling or exploration in the Arctic or the development of new mines for thermal coal, and the announcement by the world’s largest hedge fund, BlackRock, that it will no longer include companies in its portfolios that gain more than 25% of their revenues from thermal coal. Critics have pointed out, however, that despite JP Morgan’s new pledge, it will still fall short of the criteria to be included by BlackRock.
Investment charity ShareAction said JP Morgan needed to do more but its actions show that “even the world’s largest fossil fuel financier has no choice but to listen to its shareholders and civil society on climate change”. The bank recently commissioned a report on the climate crisis, which stated that although behavioural change is happening at the micro level – by individuals, companies and investors – this is unlikely to be enough to avoid disaster without action taken by financial authorities and governments.
Meanwhile, the UK’s biggest fund manager, Legal & General Investment Management, is set to launch its first fossil-fuel-free pension fund in 2020. It has made the move following criticism from clients that its ethical funds included stocks such as Shell. “It is clear that there is increasingly strong demand for pension products that give customers the choice to divest from oil,” said PensionBee, one of the fund manager’s biggest investors. Legal & General’s new fund product will also not include stocks in tobacco firms, weapons-makers and pure coal manufacturers.