Introducing Bank Climate Advocates

To avoid catastrophic effects from climate change, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and Paris Agreement call for global warming to be limited to 1.5°C. To meet this imperative goal, actions must be taken on all cylinders and directed towards all actors now.

In April 2022, a non-profit called Bank Climate Advocates (BCA) was founded to play a critical and additive role in the fight to limit global warming to 1.5°C. Specifically, BCA is helping to combat climate change through reforming the climate lending policies and practices of banks. More general information about BCA, including about its accomplished team, can be found at www.bankclimateadvocates.org.

With Ecologistics’ fiscal sponsorship of BCA now in place, the foundation has been laid for BCA’s long term success. As such BCA is beginning its substantive work!

BCA’s initial focus will be to improve and secure implementation of multilateral financial institutions’ Greenhouse Gas (GHG) assessment and mitigation requirements for projects they fund primarily through a yet to be implemented approach: filing programmatic climate complaints that span all of a bank’s loans.

Multilateral financial institutions lending policies and practices matter to global warming! These banks lend over $170 billion annually around the world for development projects and are not, or are inadequately, assessing and mitigating the significant GHG emissions and climate impacts from the projects they finance. There is thus a critical need to address these banks’ shortcomings, and align their outdated lending policies and the practices with the scientific consensus on what is required to avoid adverse impacts from climate change.

BCA is targeting the filing of its first complaint for November. The complaint’s anticipated success is expected to provide an opportunity for widespread climate change lending reform that also extends to the private banking sector. However, BCA needs your help to raise the $50,000 needed to fund the complaint from start to finish. If you are interested in helping make filing possible, please consider donating here. BCA’s Executive & Legal Director, Jason Weiner (jason@bankclimateadvocates.org), would also be happy to share more details with those interested in providing significant financial support for BCA’s efforts.

Jason Weiner, Executive Director