New York, NY — JPMorgan Chase has reportedly committed to push its clients to align with the goals of the Paris Agreement and work towards global net-zero emissions by 2050. Chase is by far the world’s biggest banker of fossil fuels, pouring more than $268 billion into the fossil fuel industry from 2016 to 2019. Today’s announcement did not include targets for phasing out the bank’s funding of fossil fuels, a critical part of reining in its contribution to the climate crisis.
In recent years, Chase has faced mounting pressure from climate activists, Indigenous rights groups, and shareholders to take meaningful action to align its business with a climate-safe future. The Sierra Club was one of 60 climate and human rights groups around the world that recently issued the Principle for Paris-Aligned Financial Institutions, which outline what adequate climate action from Chase and other firms would look like.
In response, Sierra Club Senior Campaign Representative Ben Cushing released the following statement:
“The fact that the world’s biggest funder of fossil fuels feels compelled to make a pledge like this is a testament to the power of the movement pushing financial institutions to clean up their act on climate. Chase’s climate pledge is an important step forward, but it’s severely insufficient to meet the scale of the climate crisis and Chase’s outsized role in driving the destruction that’s already underway. As long as Chase is still pouring billions of dollars into the dirty energy sources that hurt our communities and push the climate past catastrophic tipping points, a vague pledge for action doesn’t cut it.”