Our purpose
A defined
mission:
Harness a powerful but overlooked climate lever—financial management—as a force for creating a more regenerative, just world.
Why this work is important?
Around the world, organizations and individuals are working tirelessly to minimize their environmental impact. They are taking steps such as switching to renewable energy, electrifying their fleets, and reducing their consumption. Yet, very few are utilizing one of their most powerful opportunities for generating impact: their banking and investing.
We often regard extractive industries as the engine driving the environmental crisis. However, the money that funds these industries comes from the world’s largest financial firms, which in recent years have lent and invested more than $20 trillion to the carbon-intensive industries fueling climate change.
Despite this history, the financial system represents our best avenue for mitigating the environmental crisis because it can transition trillions of dollars away from financing climate drivers and into climate solutions.
However, this transition is not happening nearly fast enough.
4 to 1 clean v. dirty To reach our global climate goals, we need investment in renewable energy to surpass fossil fuels by a factor of 4X this decade. Currently, that ratio is about $0.90 of low carbon energy investment for every $1 flowing to fossil fuels.
Simply
put:
A Dangerous Trajectory
The financial sector is on track to fund emissions generation well beyond the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C, which scientists say is required to maintain a safe planet.
Insufficient Pressure
Despite mounting pressure from politicians, shareholders, and activists, financial firms are not reforming fast enough to align with global climate goals.
Our core belief:
Financial firms' customers—from the biggest companies in the world to everyday individuals—can play a powerful role accelerating the global climate transition.
This core belief is grounded in one key fact:
The money being invested in these industries is customers’ hard-earned money—the very same money customers are depositing in their bank accounts and investing in the market.
20-30%Our research shows that if you bank with the largest banks based in the United States, you may be unknowingly lending up to 20%–30% of your money to the industries most responsible for fueling the climate crisis.
Source: Topo Finance
This all leads to…
A clear vision:
A future in which all businesses, organizations, & individuals leverage their banking and investing to drive environmental and social progress.
“Where the money goes, so go the emissions. Corporations serious about emissions reductions in line with the science must work with their banks to understand and ultimately eliminate emissions associated with their corporate cash.”
—Christian Figueres
Former Executive Secretary, UN Framework Convention on Climate Change
*A quote of support from “The Carbon Bankroll” report
