California, Southern France, Algeria, Greece, Siberia... Our forests are burning and bankers are fanning the flames by financing the soy industry’s relentless expansion in the Amazon.
Last February, our mobilization forced France’s biggest bank to reduce its financing of deforestation -- but one bank’s timid efforts are far from enough in the face of the emergency.
We need to get the Europe's top banks to quit financing deforestation, to really give the Amazon and other ecosystems a fighting chance.
This week we have the perfect opportunity to directly address them: one of the two major biodiversity meetings before the COP26 on climate is happening right now and it brings together major financial actors and governments. Let’s show these banks that you refuse to let them reduce our planet to ashes:
Demand Barclays, ING Group and BNP Paribas to stop financing climate chaos!
It’s an emergency. We are reaching the point of no return.
In Brazil alone, Amazon deforestation has increased by 57% this year and more than half of the Cerrado savanna has been torn down to make way for endless soy plantations.
Soybean traders have no respect for these centuries-old trees or unique species, even less for Indigenous peoples, who have been persecuted and forced off their ancestral lands.
Make no mistake, it is the banks' financial support that enables the soy companies to commit these appalling abuses. In just four years, these European banks alone have poured over €755 million into the riskiest activities of the worst soybean traders*.
Their complicity must end now!
Tell Barclays, ING Group and BNP Paribas to stop financing the destruction of our precious forests for the sake of our planet.
Between September and December, three important meetings on biodiversity and climate will take place: the IUCN World Conservation Congress, the UN Biodiversity Conference COP15 and the UN climate COP26. Decision makers and financial actors from all over the world will be present and the saving of our planet will be at the heart of the debate.
If enough of us raise our voices now, we can focus on these banks’ responsibility and push them to change their policies by excluding destructive projects from their financing.
You can push Barclays, ING Group, BNP Paribas and others to stop being deforestation accomplices, because you’ve done it before! SumOfUs members have already forced giants like PepsiCo and McDonald's to take responsibility for deforestation.
Will you again take a stand against those who want to destroy our planet for profit?
Yes, I will add my name to demand that Barclays, ING Group and BNP Paribas stop financing the destruction of our precious forests.
More information
Forests & Finance, Data Deep Dive.
The Guardian. 20 August 2021.
Report from Reclaim Finance, Canopée, SumOfUs, Mighty Earth. 29 October 2020.
The Independent. 12 January 2021.