#1 funder of Arctic oil and gas in Asia.
Your money is being used to fund the climate crisis at an alarming rate.
SMBC is one of the 60 biggest funders of fossil fuels in the world*. In the 8 years since the Paris Agreement, this bank has funneled $212 billion into coal, oil, and gas, rapidly accelerating the climate crisis. For 2023, SMBC ranks number 8 as the biggest financier of fossil fuels, globally.
While you’ve been stashing away money for a car or a weekend getaway, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) has been using your savings to lend to some very questionable fossil fuel friends.
And it's not just a little here and there, we’re talking about $212 billion in the 8 years since 197 countries agreed to drastically reduce their greenhouse gas emissions in the Paris Agreement, or number 8 on the Tar Sand Oil financiers. SMBC is the key financier for 10 out of the 50 most devastating projects globally.
We see that SMBC is heavily increasing its investments in (the dirty forms of) LNG and (always dirty) coal. In 2023 it was also number 3 biggest financier of Ultra Deepwater Oil & Gas (which operations are more detrimental than the usual Oil Rigs). The underwriting (being middleman for loans from private parties to companies) is not taken into these number, and SMBC is a large actor here as well.
The Paris Agreement set the goal to stay under 1.5°C of warming for very good reasons. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, an increase of just a couple of degrees more could lead to "substantial species extinction, large risks to global and regional food security", and an inability to work outside — or even live — in some areas of the world. Our world will become unrecognizable as ocean dead zones, floods, and extreme weather fuel social and economic disruption.
Banks live and die on their reputations. Mass movements of money to fossil-free competitors puts those reputations at grave risk. By moving your money to a sustainable financial institution, you will:
Send a message to your bank that it must defund fossil fuels
Join a fast-growing movement of consumers standing up for their future
Take a critical climate action with profound effects