Green Climate Fund Should Not Have Ties to Major Banks, Groups Say

The Green Climate Fund Board should not do any business with the international commercial banks HSBC and Credit Agricole, for their massive investment in the coal industry, warned over 170 environmental groups in a statement, as the Green Climate Fund's Board was meeting Wednesday in Songdo, South Korea.

“Creating new business for big banks with large fossil fuel portfolios and poor records on human rights and financial scandal would undermine the very purpose of the Fund,” said Karen Orenstein of the U.S. branch Friends of the Earth during the meeting.

"To accredit HSBC and Credit Agricole is to shortchange the vulnerable communities and the countries that the Fund is meant to directly benefit. There is no profit to be made in building the resilience of those adversely impacted by climate change. Public funds must be used to support local communities in developing countries, not to subsidize big banks,” added Sam Ogallah of the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance.

HSBC and Credit Agricole provided US$7 billion and US$9.5 billion, respectively, to the coal industry between 2009 and 2014, according to the BankTrack civil society organization dedicated to track financial operations of the private sector.