JPMorgan Pledges $2.5 Trillion Towards Climate Action
The bank’s new funding target will aim to support green initiatives and socioeconomic progress over the coming decade.
JPMorgan Chase & Co said on Thursday that it will commit $2.5 trillion towards sustainability and development initiatives over the next decade.
$1 trillion of the pledged funding has been earmarked solely for investment in green projects, including renewable energy and clean technologies.
The $2.5 trillion target for investment, which begins in 2021 and will run through to the end of 2030, will also be concerned with facilitating transactions to support socioeconomic progress in developing nations.
In 2020, the bank said it facilitated $220 billion worth of transactions that it designated as supporting sustainable development, which included $55 billion in green initiatives. The total exceeded its $200 billion target for the year.
Last week, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon issued a letter to shareholders naming climate change as one of the world’s biggest issues alongside poverty, economic development and racial inequality, which he said the bank was engaged in trying to solve.
“Reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions — the main cause of climate change — requires collective ambition and cooperation across the public and private sectors,” he wrote.
ESG investment rose to greater prominence in 2020, with many asset managers launching funds to capitalise on the wave of interest. JPMorgan launched its first green ETF in December 2020 and in February it revealed that global sales of “green bonds” might hit $150 billion this year.
[ymal]
However, some climate organisations remain concerned that JPMorgan is not doing as much as it could to support climate action. In 2020, the company’s total fossil fuel financing came to $317 billion, greater than any other major US bank.
