Essay by Eric Worrall
First published JoNova; Just under $900 billion loans to fossil fuel projects in 2024.
Global Banks Increase Fossil-Fuel Funding as Climate Pledges Crumble
New report shows that banks poured nearly $900 billion into financing coal, oil and gas projects in 2024
By Elena Vardon
June 17, 2025 10:18 am ETGlobal banks significantly increased their financing for coal, oil and gas projects last year, according to a new report by climate advocacy groups, marking a reversal at a time when lenders are backtracking on climate pledges.
The world’s largest lenders committed $869.4 billion to companies conducting business in fossil fuels in 2024, according to the “Banking on Climate Chaos” report published on Tuesday. This was 23% higher than the previous year and is equivalent to the gross domestic product of Switzerland. The report, which is in its 16th edition, is coauthored by a group of nonprofit organizations including the Rainforest Action Network and the Sierra Club.
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U.S. lenders continue to dominate as the largest financiers: JPMorgan Chase led the pack providing $53.5 billion in funding last year, and was followed by Bank of Americawith $46.0 billion and Citigroup with $44.7 billion.
…“Without binding regulation, banking on climate chaos will remain banks’ dominant investment strategy, tanking our economy and our planet,” said Allison Fajans-Turner, policy lead at the Rainforest Action Network.
Read more: https://www.wsj.com/articles/global-banks-increase-fossil-fuel-funding-as-climate-pledges-crumble-9bbafce4
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The “Banking on Climate Chaos” report, authored by the Sierra Club, Rainforest Alliance and a handful of other green groups, is available here.
US banks appear to be leading the charge.
Interestingly this US surge in fossil fuel investment predates President Trump’s second term victory, so it must have been driven by rock solid demand – demand so great, banks were willing to risk the wrath of the Biden administration to satisfy customer requirements. Perhaps as WUWT predicted, the AI surge was undermining the climate movement, even before President Trump won office.
If you are interested in why AI requires so much energy that it is overturning long standing political alliances and upending global energy roadmaps, this article delves into the details.
Sadly it is not all good news. As a recent WUWT article indicates, way too much money is still being squandered on renewables – despite the dismal returns on those investments, both in terms of return on investment and in terms of additional grid capacity.
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And John Thune is acting all RINO, and allowing the Harry Reid appointed Senate Parliamentarian strip removal of “renewables” from the reconciliation bill.
She can simply be ignored, or removed.
Thune is a consummate politician, and the bill isn’t over yet, at all. I wouldn’t be surprised if she approves a bill that removes the word ‘renewables’, but not the actual renewables.
Hardly a surprise here since there has been a steady decline in renewable energy investments as it became increasingly obvious these weren’t producing the type of returns that were expected. Investors hope to profit from any chances they take with their money; but when the results are disappointing and the actual investments aren’t doing anything to alleviate the mythical climate crisis or to provide reliable energy sources, they quickly realize it’s time to bail out, and the various lending institutions have been wise to follow suit by putting the money where positive results are far more likely.
Without subsidies/guarantees renewables don’t have a chance in today’s USA.
Let’s not forget that the US south and Midwest are tornado alleys-with lots of really, really big hail and mile-wide tornadoes. What insurance company is going to keep covering major damages to the bird blenders and acres of solar panels? Do these things fall under the subsidies/guarantees catagory?
More important than how much money is being spent on renewables is who is spending that money. Those investments are going to fail, we all know that. We need to single out those who are knowingly pissing away their money and resources.. We need to give them a heads up that when they lose their money and their grid and their economy that they will not be at the top of our list of people to help. At some point people need to stop being stupid.
I reckon the main reason that Mark Carney retreated to Canada was the disintegration of his UN-backed Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ) after the world’s central banks and investment funds managers (Blackrock, Vanguard, etc al) accepted that their only mission should be respectable returns on funds managed, not stopping the climates from changing.
With this in tatters, he needed a base that at least gave him a ticket to all the climate / renewables gabfests.
The main money now being shunted into the green-focused funds is public service superannuation balances. Managed of course by put out to pasture union reps.
In Carney’s new role as dictator of Canada, he is promising everything to everybody…Canada an energy superpower in the west where they have oil and gas, as long as it’s something called de-carbonized fossil fuel, no pipelines elsewhere, nothing but EV’s sold by 2035, new hydro dams and nuclear reactors in the east….now 5% of GDP military spending making Trump happy since 5% of Canada’s GDP spent on US manufactured military gear is a big “art of the deal”…so far his promised govt spending is up to $48 K per household…to add to our already outlandish tax rates….
A very concerning factor is the amount of money that is not kept in the USA and therefore gives little to no benefit to the USA economy.