Since the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, when all nations of the world agreed to hold global warming to 1.5°C, the world’s 60 largest banks have plowed $6.9 trillion into fossil-fuel financing, including expansion projects, tar sands oil, Arctic and Amazon oil and gas, offshore drilling, fracking, liquified natural gas, and coal mining, according to the 2024 Banking on Climate Chaos report.  

Of those 60 largest banks, nine are based in the United States. Those nine have plowed over $2 trillion into oil, gas and coal operations since the Paris Agreement -- about 30% of the world’s total bank funding for fossil fuels -- with over $212 billion in 2023 alone. Here are the nine largest U.S. banks and their lending and underwriting to the fossil fuel industry from 2016 to 2023: 

Because banks use money that people have deposited to make loans, the money deposited in accounts at US megabanks is disproportionately being used to finance fossil fuel projects.  

• Every $1,000 in savings at a U.S. megabank is roughly equivalent to the direct emissions generated by flying from New York to Seattle every year, according to Project Drawdown. 

• Just $62,500 at a U.S. megabank could be responsible for as much carbon (about 8 tons) as all the heating, driving, flying, cooling and cooking an average American does in six months, according to Kat Taylor of Beneficial State Bank and Bill McKibben of Third Act. 

• On average, $24 of every $100 lent by Wall Street megabanks are repurposed to fossil fuels, according to BankFWD. Find your megabank’s carbon footprint. 

Please note that many Canadian, European, Asian, and South American banks also do business in the United States. If your bank is headquartered in another country, you can check the Banking on Climate Chaos report to see if it is one of the top 60 fossil banks. 

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