Global warming’s best friend: the megabank

Most of us are aware of the existential threat that climate change poses to our species. The immediate impacts of a warmer planet range from melting polar ice caps to drought, famine, and extreme weather events globally. Google the phrase “Kiribati climate change” to read more about the people whose country is expected to be the first to disappear due to rising sea levels. If greenhouse gas emissions continue at their current pace, experts warn that widespread catastrophe looms by the beginning of the next century. The most notorious culprit in this drama is carbon dioxide (CO2). Most CO2 emissions come from the burning of fossil fuels. Thus, fossil fuel companies have been the target of a sustained divestment campaign by the socially responsible investment industry. While divestment is impactful, there is a critical but often overlooked driver of investment in the fossil fuel industry that has only now begun to get the collective attention of the environmentally conscious: big banks. Banks play an essential role in allocating financial resources for the private sector. They do this through their lending and investment operations. For example, coal-fired power plants, the nation’s top source of CO2 emissions, are costly to build, typically