As COP30 nears and world governments gather for climate talks, the new report, The Money Trail Behind Fossil Fuel Expansion in Latin America and the Caribbean, reveals that from 2022 to 2024, 297 banks funneled a staggering $138 billion to companies undertaking oil expansion in the region.
The report, co-published by Amazon Watch, Urgewald (Germany), Instituto Internacional Arayara (Brazil), Conexiones Climáticas (Mexico), and Fundación Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (Argentina), shows that foreign money is driving this expansion and deepens dependence on fossil fuels.
From 2022 to 2024, some 92% of bank financing and 96% of institutional investments come from outside Latin America and the Caribbean. Spain-based Santander leads the pack, followed by U.S. banks JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup.
The Amazon Basin, which is approaching an irreversible tipping point, is at the forefront of these dangerous plans. Peru and Ecuador are gearing up to extract more Amazon crude, and companies are calling for new oil investments. This occurs amid Indigenous opposition and growing calls for an immediate fossil fuel phase-out in the Amazon, and an end to oil expansion to meet the 1.5°C threshold.
The study also highlights how communities are fighting back throughout the region. Among the stories featured are the prominent sites of struggle against oil in the Western Amazon, which Amazon Watch directly supports through our End Amazon Crude campaign.
- Peru: The Achuar, Wampís, and Chapra nations have successfully resisted drilling in Block 64 for three decades, kicking out five oil companies. State-run Petroperú now operates the block. However, due to the financing of its Talara Refinery, the company is trapped in a vicious cycle of oil debt. Strapped for cash, it seeks to open Indigenous territories for drilling to pay for the costly infrastructure buildout, rendering the biome a sacrifice zone. Petroperú is in talks again with past financiers, Santander, Deutsche Bank, Citigroup, and Goldman Sachs, for restructuring plans.
- Ecuador: Indigenous nations are resisting new oil expansion plans to open 49 oil and gas projects worth an astonishing $47 billion. This plan, which includes the Ronda Suroriente, risks 2.3 million hectares of the Amazon and territories of the Indigenous Andwa, Shuar, Achuar, Kichwa, Sápara, Shiwiar, and Waorani peoples. Despite staunch opposition to new oil drilling and strong criticisms of Ecuador’s recent militarized response to Indigenous-led mobilizations, notorious oil backer Citigroup still met with Ecuador officials.
The report, accompanied by a fossil fuel expansion monitor and a finance dashboard, also points to trends of oil expansion and its financing in the region. Since the Paris Agreement, over 930,000 km2 have been opened for oil and gas exploration in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Indigenous peoples are at the forefront of these threats and on the front lines resisting oil
In the lead-up to COP30 in Brazil, calls are being made to phase out fossil fuels, and ensure the Amazon is a no-go zone for extractivist projects such as oil and mining, in order to save the global climate.
Amazon Watch has accompanied Indigenous nations to confront fossil financiers like Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase, to stop $1.5 billion of catastrophic financing in its tracks, and keep 55 million barrels of Amazon crude underground – made possible by your unrelenting support of the campaign.
With new threats on the horizon, Amazon Watch is committed to supporting Indigenous nations across Peru and Ecuador to fend off disastrous fossil fuel projects and their financing.
