60 largest banks in the world have invested $3.8 trillion in fossil fuels since the Paris Agreement

60 largest banks in the world have invested $3.8 trillion in fossil fuels since the Paris Agreement

Major banks around the world are still financing fossil fuel companies to the tune of trillions of dollars.

A new report, published Wednesday from a collection of climate organizations and titled Banking on Climate Chaos 2021, finds 60 of the world's largest commercial and investment banks have collectively put $3.8 trillion into fossil fuels from 2016 to 2020, the five after The Paris Agreement was signed.

"This report serves as a reality check for banks that think that vague 'net-zero' goals are enough to stop the climate crisis," says Lorne Stockman, a Senior Research Analyst at Oil Change International, one of the organizations authoring the report, in a statement released with the report. "Our future goes where the money flows, and in 2020 these banks have ploughed billions into locking us into further climate chaos."

On an annual basis, total fossil fuel financing dropped 9% in 2020. But the report attributes that to Covid-19-related restrictions on demand.

The report also found that "fossil fuel financing ... from the world's 60 largest commercial and investment banks was higher in 2020 than it was in 2016," the first full year the Paris climate greement was in effect. It is worth noting that President Donald Trump withdrew