How Big Banks Fail Their Climate Commitments by Propping Up Big Meat
From The Observatory
As climate change concerns grow, U.S. banks are under pressure to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions from loans and investments. Despite promises to cut investments in high-emission sectors, many banks still finance industries that harm the environment, risking global climate targets.
Investing in these industries is risky for banks and investors. Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock, highlighted investor worries about how climate change affects investments. This includes physical impacts (like rising costs and supply issues) and policy impacts (like changing economics for harmful activities).
Banks have not done enough to reduce the climate impacts of their investments. One major issue is their support for industrial livestock production, which contributes significantly to emissions. Reducing this support could help banks reach their emission goals.
Industrial livestock production, which involves raising animals like cows, pigs, and chickens, contributes up to 19.6 percent of global emissions. This industry includes methane emissions from cows, feed production, manure management, and deforestation. It also causes animal cruelty, environmental damage, human health harms, and social impacts like labor rights violations.
Deforestation for livestock and feed production releases stored carbon, contributing to climate change. Land-grabbing and human rights abuses occur as land is taken from Indigenous communities. Biodiversity loss happens as forests are converted to livestock use. Industrial livestock also uses vast amounts of fresh water and pollutes the air, water, and food with toxic chemicals.
Banks financing this industry contribute to these problems. The 2024 report “Bull in the Climate Shop” shows that Bank of America, Citigroup, and JPMorgan Chase are major financiers of meat, dairy, and feed corporations, leading to significant emissions.
To reduce their impact, banks should stop financing industrial livestock expansion, require clients to set emission-reduction targets, and address the social and environmental harms of this industry. By doing so, they can help the planet and improve their own emissions impact.
🔭 This summary was human-edited with AI-assist.
