Banks Fueling Global Warming Is Business As Usual, Says Columnist

The gap between what needs to be done to save the Earth from the environmental disaster of unchecked global warming and what is actually being done continues to widen.

Photo Insert: Critics worldwide have called on huge investment banks to steer clear of new fossil fuel projects and demanded that US, British, French, and Swiss banks adhere to the goals of the Paris Climate Accord.

Yet another exemplar of this gap is the funding practices of the world’s biggest banks, Peter Dolack stressed in his column for CounterPunch magazine.

“Capitalists not concerning themselves with small things like the future ability of the planet to remain livable is nothing new, or we wouldn’t be in our present predicament. But a new report from seven environmental organizations finds that 60 of the world’s biggest banks have invested $4.6 trillion in fossil fuel projects since the Paris Climate Accord was signed in 2015,” Dolack stressed.

“Our descendants, should they be faced with a chaotic climate, massive agricultural disruptions, mass extinctions on land and in the sea, drowned coastal cities, and desertification — as they will be should present-day business as usual continue — are not likely to believe that their ruined world will be a fair tradeoff for a handful of industrialists and financiers of the past getting obscenely rich,” he argued.

Critics worldwide have called on huge investment banks to steer clear of new fossil fuel projects and demanded that US, British, French, and Swiss banks adhere to the goals of the Paris Climate Accord while encouraging Western powers to systematically reduce carbon emissions.

The COVID-19 pandemic has worsened the situation as China shifted to coal for power generation as oil and gas prices skyrocketed, particularly after Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022.

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