In our newest report, Investing in Amazon Crude, and activist guide, Building People Power to End Investment in Amazon Crude, Amazon Watch details the ways that five of the world's most powerful financial institutions – Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, and BlackRock – actively contribute to climate change by providing debt and...
E&E News | Major U.S. financial institutions are funneling billions of dollars into crude oil expansion in the western Amazon rainforest, according to a report released today that underscored Indigenous peoples' long-standing opposition to fossil fuel extraction on ancestral lands.
Oakland, CA – A report released today by Amazon Watch shows how five American and British financial institutions are actively accelerating climate change and human rights abuses by providing billions of dollars in debt and equity financing for crude oil extraction projects in the western Amazon. Already, millions of acres of the western Amazon...
Building People Power to End Investment in Amazon Crude is a 4-page refresher for activists who want to better understand the role that major financial institutions play in escalating the climate crisis. It includes detailed data from the latest Amazon Watch research on the total debt and equity financing provided by five major firms to companies...
This report outlines in detail the ways that five of the world's most powerful financial institutions are actively contributing to climate change by providing debt and equity financing for crude oil extraction projects in the Amazon. It highlights key examples of on-the-ground Indigenous resistance to oil extraction, which is not only terrible for...
CBS News | "In the Brazilian Amazon, which of course is where the fires that caught the world's attention in August are located, the main drivers [of deforestation] are the agribusiness industry," said Moira Birss of Amazon Watch.
"This announcement is a major step in the right direction for BlackRock," said Moira Birss, Finance Campaign Director at Amazon Watch. However, It still leaves questions about how it plans to address the fact that it is the world's biggest investor in deforestation."
A coalition of some of the nation's leading climate, youth, and Indigenous organizations launched a major new mobilization, Stop the Money Pipeline, that will pressure banks, insurance companies and asset managers to stop financing fossil fuels and deforestation and start respecting human rights and Indigenous sovereignty.
Financial Times | "Consciousness of environmental issues has risen a great deal," says Marcelo Seraphim, Brazil head of the UN-backed Principles for Responsible Investment. "It's become a question of survival in the global market. It is hard to survive if you are not considering ESG issues."
Today the Association of Brazil's Indigenous Peoples published an ad in the Financial Times calling out the worst offenders that finance Amazon destruction and making clear that, “the fate of the Amazon is the fate of the world.”
Yesterday, demonstrators filled the streets for the Global Day of Action for the Amazon outside of Brazilian embassies and the offices of corporations profiting from Amazon destruction. In more than twenty countries across six continents, thousands of people marched, blocked traffic, displayed art, and held vigils, sit-ins, and other events to...
"Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro certainly deserves the primary blame for the fires currently burning in the Amazon, given his violent, regressive, and racist policies and his explicit encouragement to ‘open the Amazon for business'. But multinational corporations helped create these conditions for profiteering at the expense of the lungs of...
The Hill | Proponents of the U.S. Brazil free trade agreement seem to be operating in an alternative universe, oblivious to or willfully ignorant of the environmental and social realities playing themselves out in Brazil.
Thirty-three of the world's biggest banks have poured a whopping $1.9 trillion into fossil fuels since 2016, and this financing continues to increase every year. That was a key finding of the Banking on Climate Change report, released yesterday by allies including Rainforest Action Network and Indigenous Environmental Network and endorsed by...
Washington, DC – A detailed new report published by the non-governmental organization Center for Public Policy and Human Rights (Equidad Perú) identifies the oil company GeoPark as responsible for dangerous divide-and-conquer strategies in the Peruvian Amazon. The company is also facing related criticisms of downplaying environmental concerns in...
In the remote, roadless rainforest territories along the border between Ecuador and Peru, over a dozen indigenous nationalities have launched an initiative to permanently protect about 60 million acres from industrial extraction and stop the drivers of deforestation. Dubbed the Amazon Sacred Headwaters, the initiative seeks to present a united...
The Investor Eye on the Amazon provides an update on our campaigns targeting corporations with ties to dirty industry in the Amazon, and it aims to serve as a resource for socially-responsible investors, industry analysts, and researchers looking to better understand the risks associated with investment in extractive industries - and their own...
The California Public Employees’ Retirement System has quietly approved extensive changes to its Governance and Sustainability Principles, including a ground-breaking recognition of the right of indigenous peoples to free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC). CalPERS, the largest public pension in the U.S with $356 billion in assets under...
When Gloria spoke to shareholders, the room paid rapt attention. Many had never heard an indigenous person speak about the impacts that oil drilling and climate change would have on their way of life. An issue that had seemed abstract became real, and the impact of their investment decisions gained a human face. Creating this personal connection...
New York, NY – Some of the country's largest environmental and human rights groups issued a challenge to BlackRock at its annual shareholder meeting yesterday, daring the world's largest asset manager to take greater leadership on climate change following ambitious statements by BlackRock's CEO calling on corporations to pursue ends beyond pure...
The New Republic | By fighting to protect their traditional land, indigenous women are making an innovative argument that the lives of the people and the wellbeing of the environment are inextricably linked – and a battle for one is a battle for the other.
The quickly growing international campaign pressuring JPMorgan Chase to end its massive funding of extreme fossil fuels continued to escalate today as a delegation representing Indigenous and nonindigenous communities from Canada to Ecuador and across the U.S. gathered at Chase's annual shareholder meeting in Plano, Texas.
The Investor Eye on the Amazon provides an update on our campaigns targeting corporations with ties to dirty industry in the Amazon, and it aims to serve as a resource for socially-responsible investors, industry analysts, and researchers looking to better understand the risks associated with investment in extractive industries - and their own...
"As the Senators' letter reminds us, climate change also poses a significant financial risk to the economy, especially for the fossil fuel industry and its financial backers. Investing in companies with particularly controversial operations, like those located on indigenous territories in the Amazon rainforest, poses an outsized risk because of...
Quito, Ecuador – After presenting to Ecuador's President Moreno their demands to end natural resource extraction in their Amazon rainforest territories in a meeting in the presidential palace late Thursday, a delegation of Amazonian indigenous women announced they will give him fifteen days to provide concrete responses. The women also...
We write to you – entities involved in the processing, use, regulation, and financing of Amazon crude – to request that you take action to stem the influx of Amazon crude oil into the United States in order to stop Amazon destruction, respect indigenous rights, and prevent runaway climate change.
Over fifty environmental and human rights organizations have signed on to an open letter in support of Amazon Watch's campaign to End Amazon Crude, recognizing it as a crucial component of the global movement to keep fossil fuels in the ground and protect the climate and indigenous rights.
"Like so many big businesses, JPMorgan Chase and BlackRock greenwash their activities rather than apply their resources to real solutions," Leila Salazar-López, executive director of Amazon Watch, told HuffPost in a statement. "Our report exposes their complicity in Amazon destruction, and we know savvy investors will respond...
Oakland, CA – Global financial institutions like JPMorgan Chase and BlackRock put the climate, indigenous peoples, and their customers at risk with their continued financing of companies that drill for oil in the Amazon rainforest, demonstrates a report, Investing in Amazon Destruction, released today by Amazon Watch.
