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Natural gas is not a solution to climate change, it’s not a bridge to clean energy. It is a fossil fuel and a major threat to our ability to curb climate change. The extraction of natural gas via fracking and other processes threaten our water supplies and have even caused earthquakes. 2016 was the first year that natural gas accounted for more emissions than coal in the US. Fossil fuel companies are currently attempting to build a maze of pipelines to transport natural gas to 50 proposed, approved or existing LNG export facilities in North America. That does not sound like a plan to lower emissions. If banks are serious about helping to curb climate change they can’t be investing in existing and new natural gas projects and pipelines. Via Rainforest Action Network.

The oil industry is always looking for new places to extract dirty oil. That usually means these operations are more dangerous, more dirty and more costly. Oil corporations want to open the Arctic for oil development, take deep-sea drilling to new never-before-seen depths, and double down of the extraction and refinement of one of the dirtiest fuels on planet earth, tar sands. The energy used to simply develope these projects is enormous, not to mention the unprecedented emissions that would follow any development. Banks, cannot fund these projects. Via Rainforest Action Network.

Coal is old, coal is dirty, coal is not the ambitious direction we need energy to move. Banks that fund coal power, new or existing, are funding climate change and the toxic pollution of our communities. Experts agree, it is impossible to meet even the most modest goal of limiting continued global warming to under 2°C if we continue to rely on coal-fired power. In fact, scientists say that the EArth could warm by an additional 7.2°F during the 21st century if we fail to reduce fossil fuel emissions. Another 2015 study found that if all coal plants in the pipeline were to be built, by 2030, emissions from coal power would be 400% higher than what is consistent with a 2°C pathway. A fast transition from coal-fired energy to clean, renewable energy is essential to curbing climate change. Via Rainforest Action Network.

Most of the data that we use is freely accessible in the annual filings, the websites of the financial institutions we highlight, and accountability reports like Rainforest Action Network’s 2016 Rainforest Action Network. As these reports are updated annually, there may be a slight delay between the reported figures on our site and the actual amount invested. However, given the multi-year investment period of many fossil fuel projects, the majority of the figures listed will remain accurate.