Need: The IPCC and Paris Agreement call for global warming to be limited to 1.5°C in order to avoid catastrophic effects from climate change. To meet this warming limitation goal, root and branch transformation of societies and economies is needed. Overhaul of the financial system, and its structures and processes, must lead the way. Banks provided trillions of dollars annually to governments and corporations to finance projects around the world. They are responsible for substantial avoidable greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions because their GHG assessment and mitigation policies for projects they fund are severely outdated, not in line with good practices, and fall well short of what’s needed to achieve the Paris Agreement’s 1.5°C warming goal. Moreover, banks are failing to adhere to their own GHG policies before and after loan issuance, and continue to fund fossil fuel projects that will prevent achievement of the Paris Agreement's objectives. Sweeping and uniform reform of banks’ climate change lending policies and their practices in implementation is urgently needed.
Mission & Origin: Bank Climate Advocates (BCA) was founded on April 20, 2022 to play a critical and additive role in the fight to limit global warming to 1.5°C. Our mission is to help combat climate change and its adverse effects through reforming and improving the policies and practices of financial institutions and international organizations. To achieve these ends, BCA strategically applies all tools at its disposal including advocacy, legal work, education, research, media campaigns, use of banks' dispute resolution mechanisms, and monitoring of bank loans, equity investments, and other activities.
Focus: BCA's initial focus is on greatly improving multilateral financial institutions' and national development banks' GHG assessment and mitigation requirements for projects they fund. We are doing this through a novel strategic approach additive to others' efforts in the climate finance space that holds great promise to help achieve needed reform of all banks' climate change policies and practices. Our first project to drastically enhance the International Finance Corporation's (IFC's) climate change financing policies and practices was launched in April 2023.
Partners & Coordination: Essential to achieving our mission is ensuring BCA’s efforts are complementing and enhancing those of Global South and North Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) working in the climate finance space. As such, we closely coordinate and partner with CSOs from all over the world on our projects and campaigns, with an emphasis on CSOs representing and working directly with communities who are most adversely and disproportionately impacted by climate change. BCA is also a member and active participant in The Big Shift Global coalition, The Big Shift Global Stop Funding Fossil Gas Working Group, and the Global Legal Public Finance Working Group.
BCA demonstrating against fossil fuel finance at World Bank 2023 Annuals with The Big Shift Global