Tell SANTANDER: No more financing for coal, oil, and gas! (STOP THE MONEY PIPELINE)

 

For three decades, global climate negotiations have focused on managing the symptoms of the climate crisis — greenhouse gas emissions — while ignoring the root cause: the unchecked proliferation of coal, oil, and gas. While the UNFCCC climate talks that led to the Paris Agreement are essential forums for global climate action, their consensus-based structures allow the fossil fuel industry and oil-producing countries, such as the United States and Saudi Arabia, to block necessary action on fossil fuel production. Now, we have a vital opportunity to break this deadlock. Between April 24th - 29th, Colombia and the Netherlands will convene the “First Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels” in Santa Marta. Forty-five national governments will participate in this first-of-its-kind conference. Their goal? Accelerating the rapid and just phase out of fossil fuels. However, there will be no transition away from fossil fuels if we do not address the financing of new coal, oil, and gas projects from the world’s largest banks. Send an email to Santander executives now and demand that it stop financing all fossil fuel expansion, from Latin America to the US Gulf South and beyond. While the Spanish government is participating in the Transition Away from Fossil Fuels Conference, its largest bank, Santander, is the world’s largest financier of new fossil fuels in Latin America, bankrolling new oil and gas projects that destroy the Amazon, violate the rights of Indigenous Peoples, and accelerate the climate crisis. In February, Santander purchased regional US lender, Webster, making Santander the tenth-largest bank in the United States. Indeed, while other European banks have pulled back from the country, Santander has placed expansion into the US at the very center of its business strategy. Perhaps that helps explain why Santander has been backsliding on climate almost as quickly as the Trump Administration. In the past year, Santander has weakened its 2030 climate targets, refused to set an emissions reductions target for its underwriting, and teamed up with ExxonMobil to push a dangerous new form of greenwashing, known as Carbon Measures, a new carbon accounting standard that shifts the blame away from the fossil fuel industry. Email Santander’s top decision makers now: demand that the bank stops financing new fossil fuel projects. Your email will go directly into the inbox of 20 of the bank’s top executives, including its CEO and Chairman of the Board. The Transition Away Conference is a huge opportunity to hasten the end of fossil fuels. Bringing together both some of the world’s most climate-vulnerable nations, such as Tuvalu, Vanuatu, and Palau, and major fossil fuel producers, such as Australia, Canada, Norway, and the UK, the conference is a spark of hope in a dark and scary time. But to end fossil fuels within a generation, big banks need to get on board ― send an email to Santander executives now and let them know: if the Spanish government can commit to a phase out of fossil fuels, so must you. In Solidarity, - the Stop the Money Pipeline team.