The Banking on Climate Chaos 2025 report, endorsed by hundreds of organizations worldwide, reveals that the 65 largest banks committed $869 billion to fossil fuel companies in 2024. This represents a $162 billion increase from 2023, with financing surging for both corporate loans and expansion projects. Since the 2016 Paris Agreement, global banks have funneled $7.9 trillion into fossil fuels.
“These financial flows reflect the policy retreat of banks abandoning climate goals for short-term profits,” said Dianne Enriquez, Campaign Director for the Climate and Energy Program at Rainforest Action Network.
A surge in fossil fuel expansion
In 2024, $429 billion of the financing documented in the report went specifically to fossil fuel expansion projects, locking in decades of future dependence . The report noted that bank underwriting of bonds and shares increased by nearly $117 billion, while lending rose by $45.8 billion compared to 2023 .
“Global banks continue to fuel the climate crisis at an alarming scale,” said Jessye Waxman, Sustainable Finance Campaign Advisor for the Sierra Club. “U.S. banks are leading this surge.”
U.S. banks at the top
The report shows U.S. banks dominated fossil fuel financing in 2024. JPMorgan Chase was the largest fossil fuel financier with $53.5 billion, followed by Bank of America ($46 billion), Citigroup ($44.7 billion), Wells Fargo ($39.3 billion), Goldman Sachs ($28.5 billion), and Morgan Stanley ($27 billion) . Together, these six banks accounted for more than one-fifth of all global fossil fuel financing covered in the report .
In total, U.S.-based fossil fuel companies received $416 billion in 2024, nearly half of global financing . Banks based in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Japan, and China were responsible for around 83 percent of all fossil fuel financing globally .
“Globally, people are paying dearly,” said Enriquez.
The greenwashing loophole
The Banking on Climate Chaos report highlights that banks continue to mask their role in fossil fuel expansion through corporate-level financing. Between 2021 and 2024, only 6.4 percent of financing was at the project level, while the overwhelming majority went directly to corporations . In 2024, 70 percent of fossil fuel expansion financing came from banks with policies that supposedly excluded such activities .
“Banks’ corporate financing loophole is a textbook case of greenwashing,” said Waxman. The loophole “gives fossil fuel companies unrestricted capital to pursue harmful expansion.” She added, “It renders banks’ climate policies toothless by allowing them to maintain the illusion of responsibility, while behind the scenes, they continue to bankroll the fossil fuel industry.”
This duplicity has been underscored by the collapse of the Net Zero Banking Alliance, as major banks have withdrawn from the U.N.-backed initiative meant to align lending with climate goals .
CEO profits and community impacts
The BOCC report shows the central role U.S. banks play in fossil fuel financing, but a Truthout analysis reveals how their executives personally profit. From 2022 to 2024, the CEOs of the six top U.S. fossil-financing banks received $543.75 million in compensation. In 2024 alone, they took in $185,350,903, or nearly $31 million each on average.
Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, earned $39 million in 2024 and holds stock worth more than $2 billion. In Lake Charles, Louisiana—a community surrounded by petrochemical plants and targeted for LNG expansion—the per capita income is $35,847. Dimon’s pay was 1,087 times higher. Morgan Stanley CEO Ted Pick received $24,881,032 in 2024, 694 times the local income.
Ozane, who founded the Vessel Project in Lake Charles, called Dimon’s pay “staggering,” saying it was “based off investments in fossil fuel projects that are not only killing the people in my community, but harming this entire world.” She added, “It’s especially troubling when his bank finances a project like Venture Global, which is the largest polluter when it comes to methane gas, and it’s right there in my community, a community that is struggling.”
“These billion-dollar industries are making money off of our backs while killing us,” Ozane told Truthout.
Demands for accountability
The report concludes with calls to halt financing of fossil fuel expansion and adopt binding rules to hold banks accountable. “Ultimately, we’d like for banks to immediately halt financing fossil fuel companies that are doing fossil fuel expansion,” said Enriquez.
Waxman added that regulators should “set strong, binding policies—at all levels from regional to state to national—that incentivize banks to clean up their act or face significant penalties.”
Ozane emphasized the stakes: “It’s time for these institutions to align their practices with the urgent need for climate action and the urgent need to put people before profit.”
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