California, Southern France, Algeria, Greece, Siberia... Our
forests are burning and bankers are fanning the flames by
financing the soy industry’s relentless expansion in the
Amazon.
Last February, your mobilization forced France’s biggest bank to
reduce its financing of deforestation -- but one bank’s timid
efforts are far from enough in the face of the emergency.
We need to get the Europe’s top banks to quit financing
deforestation, to really give the Amazon and other forests
a fighting chance.
This week we have the perfect opportunity to directly
address them: one of the two major biodiversity meetings
before the COP26 on climate is happening right now and it brings
together major financial actors and governments. Let’s show
these banks that you refuse to let them reduce our planet to
ashes:
Demand
Barclays, ING Group and BNP Paribas to stop financing climate
chaos!
It’s an emergency. We are reaching the point of no
return.
In Brazil alone, Amazon deforestation has increased by
57% this year and more than half of the Cerrado savanna
forest has been torn down to make way for endless soy
plantations.
Soybean traders have no respect for these centuries-old trees or
unique species, even less for Indigenous peoples, who have
been persecuted and forced off their ancestral lands.
Make no mistake, Vladimir, it is the banks' financial support
that enables the soy companies to commit these appalling
abuses. In just four years, these European banks alone
have poured over €755 million into the riskiest activities of the
worst soybean traders*.
Their complicity must end now!
Tell
Barclays, ING Group and BNP Paribas to stop financing the
destruction of our precious forests for the sake of our
planet.
Between September and December, three important meetings on
biodiversity and climate will take place: the IUCN World
Conservation Congress, the UN Biodiversity Conference COP15 and the
UN climate COP26. Decision makers and financial actors from all over
the world will be present and the saving of our planet will be at
the heart of the debate.
If enough of us raise our voices now, we can focus on
these banks’ responsibility and push them to change their policies
by excluding destructive projects from their financing.
You can push Barclays, ING Group, BNP Paribas and others to stop
being deforestation accomplices, because you’ve done it
before! You amongst other SumOfUs members have already
forced giants like PepsiCo and McDonald's to take responsibility for
deforestation.
Will you again take a stand against those who want to
destroy our planet for profit?
Yes,
I will add my name to demand that Barclays, ING Group and BNP
Paribas stop financing the destruction of our precious
forests.
