They can be easy to miss, but in the climate fight there are positive signs: Globally, clean energy investment has doubled fossil fuel investment two years in a row; despite Trump’s best efforts, solar and wind continue to dominate new power plant construction in the US; China’s emissions appear to have peaked in 2024.
Scratch an inch deeper however, and the climate math is scarier than ever. Eight years on from the IPCC’s landmark 2018 report that warned we had twelve years to slash global emissions to avoid dangerous climate feedback loops, emissions are higher than ever.
Today, we’re beginning to live with the consequences of our failure to heed the warnings. According to modeling commissioned by The Economist, the recent European heatwave probably killed 12,000 people in three days; at least 25 people died due to heat stress in New Jersey over the holiday weekend; deadly rainfalls are currently pummeling Mumbai and much of China.
Last month saw the release of two major reports that highlight how we’ve gotten into this mess. Released in early June, Banking on Climate Chaos is the world’s premier annual assessment of bank financing of fossil fuels and its topline findings were stark: bank financing for fossil fuels increased sharply between 2025 and 2024. Citibank, Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase, all financed more coal, oil, and gas in 2025 than the year before.
Released a couple of weeks later, Investing in Climate Chaos analyzes the world’s largest investors in fossil fuels. It revealed that even major investors that you might expect better of are failing the most fundamental of climate tests. Three of the four pension funds with the largest holdings in fossil fuels are California and New York’s public pensions.
Reading these two reports, in the lead up to the country’s birthday celebrations, one other major takeaway jumped out to me: no other nation is as responsible for the fossil fuel expansion fueling deadly climate change as our own. Nobody else is even close.
The numbers speak volumes:
US investors are responsible for 62% of all institutional investments in fossil fuel corporations.
8 of the world’s top 10 investors in fossil fuels are US-based.
More than one-third of the $900+ billion commercial banks provided to fossil fuel companies last year came from just ten US megabanks.
I suppose the fact that the United States is beating heart of fossil finance shouldn’t come as a shock. For years, as China has been making strides to becoming the world’s first electrostate, we’ve been doubling down on becoming the world’s largest petrostate.
The US first overtook Saudi Arabia to become the world’s largest oil producer in 2018. By 2024, the US was producing twice as much oil as Saudi Arabia, the world’s second-largest oil producer.
It’s hard not to look at just how much the US has become the heartland of the fossil fuel industry and the great web of finance that holds it up and conclude that, one way or another, the climate fight will largely be won or lost here, in the belly of the Big Oil beast.
The fossil fuel industry, after all, is the largest obstacle to climate action, whether at the global, national, or local level. There is no solving the climate crisis without directly taking on and figuring out a way of defeating the fossil fuel industry.
This is why, here at Stop the Money Pipeline ― even as we expand our campaigns to tackle the rise of authoritarianism ― we’re never going to take our eye off our original mission of severing the financial umbilical cord between Wall Street and Big Oil.
And even if the reports out last month highlight how challenging that is going to be, the heat and the storms pummeling so much of the world are also a reminder of how essential it is, too.
In Solidarity
- Alec, Stop the Money Pipeline coalition director.
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News and Updates from the Coalition.
- BlackRock's $40 Billion problem
The New York City Comptroller, Mark Levine, has announced that the city’s pension plans are beginning a new search for asset managers to manage their massive investments – and the city will factor climate criteria into how it will assess its hiring of new asset managers. This could mean BlackRock, the world’s second-largest investor in fossil fuels, losing out on $40 billion worth of business, owing to its failure to support climate action.
Such a move would follow hot on the heels of massive European (and possibly Asian) pensions pulling billions from BlackRock. Who knows? Maybe Larry Fink will soon start to get the message: climate action is good for business.
– No Immunity for Big Oil
After New York and Vermont passed Make Polluters Pay bills in 2024 which would force major oil companies to help pay for the climate damages they caused, Big Oil made pushing Congress to pass a blanket “immunity shield” its top priority. In response, Republicans have introduced federal legislation that would prevent Americans from holding Big Oil financially or legally liable for climate damages, ever again.
Last week, 4,000+ of you sent emails to your Member of Congress demanding that they oppose legal immunity for Big Oil. If you haven’t done so yet, send an email to your Member of Congress here.
– Got a 401(k)? Want to support climate action, not fossil fuels?
Stand.earth has released this great step-by-step guide to help you push your employer and your retirement plan to offer pension options that support a just transition. They also released this briefing, highlighting exactly the kind of dirty fossil fuels many of our retirement plans are currently invested in.
– Making Citibank pay for its environmental racism
If the news that big banks have increased their support of fossil fuels again has got you angry, here’s one thing you can do: plug into our campaign to call on Costco to dump Citibank, and take its 13 million credit cards with them.
If you're in Texas or Louisiana, sign this Gulf South letter to Costco. If you're in the Seattle area, email Sarah to plug into flyering Costco HQ employees.
– Holding Musk accountable
There have been many travesties under the Trump Administration, but allowing the world’s richest man to destroy USAID and kill countless children in the process is one of the deepest. That’s just one reason why the new Congress must commit to hold investigations and hearings into DOGE – we deserve to understand exactly what happened to our data, and exactly what the impacts of Musk’s actions were.
If you haven’t signed our campaign petition to Congress yet, you can join 50,000 others and 50+ organizations and unions in signing here. Once you sign the petition, we’ll follow up with more ways to plug into this campaign.
– Vs. Goliath
A new award-winning, four-part documentary series from Tikkun Olam Productions & Fossil Free Media, VS. GOLIATH, follows everyday people, including many friends of STMP, across the country as they stand up to the fossil fuel industry.
Fossil Free Media is hosting virtual screenings of a VS. GOLIATH episode on the first Tuesday of each month. Each screening will be followed by a Q&A panel with activists featured in the episode, and serve as an opportunity for viewers to learn, strategize and get inspired for the fights that lie ahead.
RSVP and details for each screening:
– Insurers raise you rates, make record profits, and side with Big Oil
Have you noticed your home insurance getting more expensive lately? If so, you’re not alone. In the face of a huge rise in climate-driven disasters, homeowners in almost every state are facing skyrocketing premiums and many cannot even get insurance any more.
But here’s the thing, as a new report from Public Citizen and Revolving Door Project reveal, insurance companies are raking in record profits, even as they raise rates for the rest of us.
Oh and at the same time as raking in record profits and hiking rates for all of us, the insurance industry has weighed in on the side of Big Oil in a pending Supreme Court case, arguing that local and state governments shouldn’t be allowed to sue fossil fuel companies for climate damages.
All of which is, of course, all the more reason to pass legislation like the Insure our Communities Act in New York…
– And Members of Congress here from you...
This month's closing photo comes from advocates in Massachusetts, delivering the DOGE accountability campaign petition to Representative Pressley's office. Dozens of Members of Congress have already had the petition hand-delivered to their office. If you want to ensure your elected gets the message, fill out this form.
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