Coal Financing Since Glasgow: $51 billion
Since 2022, US banks poured $51 billion into the coal industry. The top 5 coal banks in the USA are Bank of America ($6.8 billion), JP Morgan Chase ($5.1 billion), Citigroup ($4.8 billion), Wells Fargo ($4.5 billion) and Jefferies Financial Group ($4 billion). Each of these banks increased their coal financing since the Glasgow COP, and an end is not yet in sight.
Top 5 US Coal Banks
On November 27th, 2024, Texas and 10 other Republican-led states sued the world’s biggest asset managers BlackRock, State Street, and Vanguard for their participation in the Climate Action 100 and Net Zero Asset Managers Initiative. The lawsuit claimed that asset managers’ signals of “mutual intent to reduce the output of thermal coal” were in violation of antitrust laws. In the following weeks, Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, and Wells Fargo all exited the Net Zero Banking Alliance. Since this exodus, Citi is the only US bank with a public commitment to phase out coal financing.
Out of the top 5 US coal banks, Jefferies Financial Group is the only institution that never ever had any plans to reduce its financed emissions. Jeffries increased its coal financing by almost 400% between 2022 and 2024 and is now the biggest financier of the controversial Adani Group, which is planning to double its coal power production and was indicted by US prosecutors in connection with a scheme to bribe Indian officials. While other US banks dropped Adani, Jeffries provided US$ 2 billion to the company since 2022.