Last year,
the largest banks in the world agreed to lend nearly $1 trillion cumulatively in funding to fossil fuel corporations. This is a huge increase in financing, and will only further commit the entire planet to worsening climate change that affects every single one of us.
Simultaneously, scientists are warning that
within the next 1 or 2 years, the Earth will surpass the 1.5 degrees Celsius global heating point that we were trying to avoid with the Paris Climate agreement. Even worse, it's likely that the world will reach an even more catastrophic 1.7 C level of overall global heating within the next 9 years.
What are banks doing, sacrificing the future of the entire globe? Fossil fuel corporations are the exact last place that they should be investing money! Sign the petition to demand that banks IMMEDIATELY divest, now!Meanwhile, as extreme heat rises across the globe, so are hospitalizations, heat-related illnesses, and death. Each year in the U.S.,
more people die from severe heat than from every other kind of extreme weather
combined together. Those deaths have skyrocketed in the last 20 years, increasing by more than 50%.
And there's no end in sight. In the U.S. over the next 16 years, experts expect heat-related hospitalizations and emergency room visits to
more than double, up to around 237,000 cases per year. And, predictably, as the number of hospital visits doubles, so will the
annual costs of healthcare. Researchers expect that number to climb to
more than $1 billion by 2040.
Luckily, some banks are actually reducing their fossil fuel financing. Out of the 65 largest banks in the world, 26 - or 40% - have actually invested less in dirty energy. But the very largest banks - the most powerful ones - have been surging ahead as though the Earth isn't burning.
The banks pledging the most money to oil and gas include JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, Barclays, Mizuho Financial, and MUFG.They don't have the right to throw away our futures and the future of the entire planet. A handful of banks have no right to make such a destructive decision for everyone alive, and for future generations.
We must make sure they hear our voices! Help us by signing the petition to demand that JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, Barclays, Mizuho Financial, MUFG, and all other banks fully, completely, 100% divest from the fossil fuel industry!