JP Morgan Chase: The Worlds most Dangerous Bank

JP Morgan Chase: The Worlds most Dangerous Bank

JP Morgan Chase continues as the worlds #1 banker of fossil fuels. Their emissions are trending down, but they remain number one and are not transitioning to renewables quickly enough to ensure a habitable Earth.

The 2018 IPCC reports states that global emissions need to be cut by 45% by 2030 and to net zero by 2050 to have a 50% chance of keeping warming to 1.5C, which is considered the "safe zone." Despite their clear warning, governments around the world are failing to lower emissions. The PPM of carbon in the atmosphere continues to rise.

The big unknown is tipping points. Scientists are unclear when tipping points will be reached because they are being triggered faster than originally projected. Hitting tipping points will create a self perpetuating feedback loop of continued heating. At that point, humans will no longer have control of the climate and will face mass extinction from food and water shortages, extreme weather events, increased transmission of disease, and heat domes.

From Yale Environment, "The term “climate tipping points” was first coined 15 years ago by Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, former director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany and a co-author of the new analysis, to describe how, under pressure from global warming, parts of the climate system could suddenly collapse or run out of control."

The recently leaked IPCC report projects that tipping points may be reached sooner, closer to 1.5 degrees of warming, but that we do have time left to act. An author of the IPCC report stated that there isn’t a certain amount of heating “baked in” because of existing greenhouse gases, as originally thought, and Earth will regulate within a few decades if we reach net zero before enough tipping points are reached. We only have seven years left in our carbon budget if we want to ensure that we stay below 1.5 degrees of warming.

Lowering fossil fuels after tipping points have been reached will not be enough. We do not have the tech to pull greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, and we continue to destroy natural carbon sinks. Because of human's excessive and continued burning of coal, oil, and natural gas, we are facing dangers that will only get worse and more extreme, with the eventual collapse of organized civilization projected. Humans rights and order would become a thing of the past. We have no time to push off what needs to be an immediate rapid transition away from fossil fuels to renewable sources of energy.

Investing in solar and installing LED lights is good. Committing to powering their firm from renewable energy is good. But that doesn’t equate to Chase taking responsibility as a bank to ensure that our Earth remains habitable and safe for our children. They poured 316 billion dollars into fossil fuels projects in 2020 alone.

They are transferring investments from one form of fossil fuel to another, one that has a lower pollution rate, and claiming that they are “more sustainable.” They are engaging in greenwashing to fool the public into thinking they are green when they are the opposite of that.

They do not respond to protesters pleas. The only option left is for customers to abandon them for more responsible banks whose leadership displays compassion for life on Earth, commits to reducing suffering in the world, and accepts reasonable boundaries around ending fossil fuel investments based on scientific consensus. The IEP recently stated that we must end all new fossil fuel infrastructure if we want any chance of reaching net zero by 2050, which is already projected by scientists to be too late to avoid hitting tipping points and heading towards an uninhabitable hothouse Earth. Net zero within seven years holds the least amount of risk. JP Morgan Chase and other banks and institutions continue to ignore these clearly stated boundaries.

Chase uses a lot of words to suggest they are green, but fail to follow up with a committed plan followed through with deliberate action. It’s greenwashing of the masses.

Check out their "sustainability" flyer below.