Arctic investment could be on thin ice
Goldman Sachs pulls funding, citing ‘climate transition’ concerns — and other major U.S. banks might follow
Goldman Sachs pulls funding over climate concerns, and other banks
could follow suit.
Goldman Sachs just became the first big U.S. bank to say it will no longer finance new drilling or oil exploration in the Arctic. It may not be the last.
That’s the hope of some Native Americans and environmentalists in Alaska who for years have pressured Wall Street to rule out financing oil and natural gas work in the world’s fastest-warming region.
Among the major banks next on their target list are Wells Fargo, Citigroup, Bank of America and Morgan Stanley, which together have conducted nearly a half a trillion dollars in fossil fuel financing since the signing of the Paris climate accord at the end of 2015.
And at the top of their list is JPMorgan Chase, which from 2016 to 2018 financed more oil, gas and coal work than any bank in the world, according to an analysis by the Rainforest Action Network.
“They’re the biggest player,” said Jason Disterhoft, a senior campaigner at Rainforest Action Network, of the bank that did nearly $196 billion in fossil fuel financing over that three-year period. “They need to take the most urgent action.”
The new environmental policy from Goldman Sachs, outlined last week as international climate talks in Madrid wrapped up, prohibits financing for not only Arctic drilling but also for coal-fired power plants that don’t have carbon emissions reduction technology as well as for coal mines that extract fuel for those power stations.
The bank also promised to invest $750 billion in “sustainable finance” over the next decade.
“Profitability will always matter,” Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon wrote in an op-ed in the Financial Times explaining the decision. “But finance must also address climate transition and inclusive growth while achieving and sustaining those returns.”
Other major banks abroad, such as Barclays and the Royal Bank of Scotland, have also ruled out financing for Arctic drilling. But Goldman is the first to do so among major U.S. firms.
The move by the bank, seen as one of the most prestigious on Wall Street, raised hopes that other major financial institutions in the United States will follow its lead. Between 2016 and 2018, American banks made up six of the top 12 financiers of coal, oil and gas work.
The dominos have fallen like that before. Leading up to the climate talks in Paris in late 2015, and shortly thereafter, those six major U.S. banks each promised one after another to reduce their credit exposure to coal mining companies or outright end financing for certain coal projects in developed countries.
“These big six banks move in absolute lockstep,” Disterhoft said. He added that other financial institutions will feel pressure to ratchet up their commitments to forgo financing fossil fuel projects ahead of the next round of climate talks in Glasgow in November.
Andrew Gray, a spokesman for JPMorgan Chase, said he would not comment on any future actions. But in an email, he said the bank has “a significant amount of work underway to further build upon our efforts on climate-related risk and opportunity and we look forward to sharing more in the coming year.”
And E.J. Bernacki, a spokesman for Wells Fargo, said the bank has restricted some financing in the Alaska Arctic since 2018. “While we will continue to support the responsible development of conventional energy, Wells Fargo is committed to accelerating the transition to a low-carbon economy,” he added.
Goldman’s decision comes after Bernadette Demientieff, executive director of the Gwich’in Steering Committee, and other activists met with the bank multiple times — and after the Trump administration said it wanted to lease off portions of the pristine Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska for oil and gas drilling.
“My heart is really humbled,” said Demientieff, whose people live outside the refuge but rely on its caribou herd for sustenance and worry how oil and gas development may harm their food source.
“Our people are living in ground zero of climate change,” she said.
Backed by the oil interests and Alaska’s entirely Republican congressional delegation, the Trump administration said in September it would seek to open the refuge’s entire coastal plain up to oil and gas exploration. The nearly 1.6 million-acre area, home to polar bears, wolves and migratory birds in addition to the caribou, had long been closed to drilling. President Trump’s team is also seeking to expand drilling in Alaska’s massive National Petroleum Reserve, with the Bureau of Land Management last week leasing 1 million acres for just under $11.3 million.
The Arctic is not the only place where Wall Street is feeling the heat. So is Saudi Arabia.
Earlier this year, green groups from the United States, United Kingdom and the Netherlands asked seven of the largest banks in the world — including Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase — not to underwrite the initial public offering of Saudi Aramco, the kingdom-owned oil giant.
Environmentalists put pressure on the private sector to reduce climate-warming emissions at a time when governments fumble to act as quickly as needed to avert worsening disasters, according to climate scientists.