Multiple banks have pledged to clean up their fossil fuel funding with net-zero carbon commitments, but they continue business-as-usual, pushing for profit by championing destructive projects responsible for driving climate chaos.
The 2022 annual report, Banking on Climate Chaos [http://www.bankingonclimatechaos.org], revealed that fossil fuel financing from the worlds 60 largest banks has reached nearly $4.6 trillion in the six years since the adoption of the Paris Climate Agreement, with $742 billion in 2021 alone.
On this show recorded in 2022, we delve into the Banking on Climate Chaos report with Ruth Breech from Rainforest Action Network [https://www.ran.org/], one of the organizations that authored the report. She discusses how these findings underscore the need for banks to immediately implement policies that end their financing for fossil fuel expansion. Moreover we highlight some of these projects causing climate chaos and the worldwide movement of communities coming together to demand that the financial sector get out of the oil and gas business altogether.
We also feature special reports from Producer Jack Eidt on Liquified natural Gas expansions on the Louisiana Gulf Coast and the recently approved Willow drilling project on Alaska's North Slope.
Listen to the extended version of the show: https://www.patreon.com/posts/banking-on-chaos-66503029
Ruth Breech is Senior Campaigner, of Rainforest Action Networks Climate and Energy team. She is responsible for organizing corporate accountability campaigns on financial institutions, supporting front line communities impacted by fossil fuels and climate change, partnering with Indigenous leaders and working with grassroots networks across the country to Defund Climate Chaos.
Ruth brings 20 years of on-the-ground-work with environmental justice frontline communities. She is the recipient of the 2009 Healthy School Heroes Award for her leadership in relocating an elementary school in Ohio away from a plastics plant and its cancer causing emissions. She serves on the board of Crude Accountability International & Earth Guardians.
Jessica Aldridge, Co-Host and Producer of EcoJustice Radio, is an environmental educator, community organizer, and 15-year waste industry leader. She is a co-founder of SoCal 350, organizer for ReusableLA, and founded Adventures in Waste. She is a former professor of Recycling and Resource Management at Santa Monica College, and an award recipient of the international 2021 Women in Sustainability Leadership and the 2016 inaugural Waste360, 40 Under 40.
Podcast Website: http://ecojusticeradio.org/
Podcast Blog: https://wilderutopia.com/ecojustice-radio/banking-on-climate-chaos-the-fossil-fuel-finance-report/
Support the Podcast: Patreon https://www.patreon.com/ecojusticeradio
PayPal https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=LBGXTRM292TFC&source=url
Executive Producer: Jack Eidt
Host and Producer: Jessica Aldridge
Engineer and Original Music: Blake Quake Beats
