How did you choose which bank to open a student account with? The largest overdraft? The catchiest advert? Perhaps not. However, I expect that a bank’s environmental performance is not much of a factor to most people when deciding where to put their cash. But it should be, because our cash is funding damaging fossil fuel extraction projects worldwide and thereby accelerating climate change at an alarming rate.
The Royal Bank of Scotland, the company behind Natwest, Direct Line and Churchill, calls itself the “oil and gas bank”; it is the second largest bank in Europe and one of the most competitive in the oil and gas industry. RBS prides itself on its role as financial adviser, money lender and all-round hands-on partner, having lent $10 billion dollars and provided advice on $30 billion worth of projects worldwide between 2001 and 2006.
Such investment commits the worldwide energy framework to unsustainable and damaging fuel supplies, since oil and gas projects usually last 20 to 40 years. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has declared that the largest cause of climate change is the combustion of fossil fuels and that reducing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is the most direct way to reducing climate change. RBS is now investing in previously inaccessible, ‘dirty’ fuel found in oil sands and coal bed methane, which produce higher levels of CO2 and push the carbon frontier to the limit.
RBS puts money into developing sustainable energy too, but the amount is tiny in comparison. Unlike other British banks, it takes no responsibility for the climate impact of its investment in fossil fuels; it even claims to be “financing the transition to a low carbon economy.” RBS could easily take a leading role in this important transition by capping and reducing involvement in fossil fuels, ceasing investment in “dirty” fuel and committing to a complete move toward financing renewable energy development.
RBS will only take such steps if they look profitable; it is a company, not an environmental group. What can you do about that? Close your account with your bank if you feel that they are environmentally unfriendly and get involved in a campaign which tackles one of the biggest players in climate chaos.
For more information on the issue and what you can do, contact [email protected] or see www.peopleandplanet.org/ditchdirtydevelopment. Sources: ‘The Oil and Gas Bank’, published by PLATFORM, People and Planet, Friends of the Earth Scotland, BankTrack and New Economics Foundation; www.royalbankofscotland.com
