Top Five banks are Fuelling Climate Change   

Campaigners are calling for UK companies to make public the carbon emissions of the fossil fuel extraction they finance, as well as having to report their direct carbon emissions. Under new rules coming into force tomorrow (October 1st) firms must disclose information such as energy use and petrol consumption in their annual reports.  

Liz Murray, campaigner at the World Development Movement, said

RBS’s true carbon footprint dwarfs the emissions not just of Scotland where it is headquartered but of the whole of the UK. And RBS is just one example. All of the UK’s big banks are fuelling climate change by financing the continued extraction of coal, oil and gas around the world, and they are not going to quit unless they are forced to by regulation. We need tough government action to wean the UK finance sector off dirty energy, and making banks come clean on the emissions from the fossil fuels they finance would be the first step.

– See more at: http://www.wdm.org.uk/climate-change/rbs-carbon-emissions-1200-times-higher-reported-figure#sthash.3KdDLnMZ.dpuf 

The anti-poverty campaigning group, the World Development Movement says the UK’s top 5 banks helped fossil fuel companies raise £170 billion between 2010 and 2012. They want this limited, to reduce climate change. Sarah Lockett reports.

World Development Movement campaigner Jane Herbstritt said:

“Edinburgh’s financial sector makes up 8% of the Scottish workforce, and manages around £750 billion in assets annually. Clearly such a powerful and influential sector could be making a really positive contribution in our transition towards a green global economy, but instead it continues to invest heavily in fossil fuels. High street banks like RBS and Barclays are financing multi-national companies involved in large-scale coal, oil and gas projects that displace local communities and threaten the global climate. We intend to show people living in Edinburgh that these investments are taking place right under their noses, using their money. We also want to show that there are positive solutions out there, and that people can take action to change things.”

See also WDM’s recent research calculating the carbon footprint of the Royal Bank of Scotland, when its loans to fossil fuel companies around the world are taken into account:

http://www.wdm.org.uk/climate-change/rbs-carbon-emissions-1200-times-higher-reported-figure –

See also

• The Coal-ition Liam R Carr
• Coal was our Heritage not our Future
• Clean Coal: Another Financial Device for the City
• They are corrupt to the Fracking Core
• World Development Movement: Scandalous Edinburgh – walking tour reveals banks’ dirty energy secrets