Denver – Since the Paris Climate Agreement, the world’s 60 biggest banks have financed fossil fuels to the tune of $4.6 trillion. Runaway funding for fossil fuel extraction and infrastructure fuels climate chaos and threatens the lives and livelihoods of millions. US banks are the top fossil fuel funders.

That’s why 350CO took to the streets in Denver Saturday dressed as zombies to protest fossil fuel financing, calling on the Wall Street banks and the Federal Reserve to phase out fossil fuel funding by 2030. The event, held just before Halloween,  was a ‘Climate Banker Zombie Crawl’ to bring attention to the role Wall Street banks and the Federal Reserve play in fossil fuel financing. The “zombie banker” mob roamed the streets of Downtown Denver from the Federal Reserve to Chase Bank and Wells Fargo spotlighting connections between fossil fuel investments, bankers, and the climate crisis. Check out CBS’s coverage of our action here. 

“Scientists across the world have sent a clear message: we only have a short window of time to significantly cut down greenhouse gas emissions and keep global warming below 1.5°celsius.” says Giselle Herzfeld, Defunding Climate Disaster Campaign Coordinator for 350 Colorado. “In spite of this, Wall Street banks have continued to pump hundreds of billions of dollars into the fossil fuel industry, under the guidance of the U.S. Federal Reserve. This is why we continue to call on the Federal Reserve and the Wall Street banks to stop funding the climate crisis, and start funding a Green New Deal.”

Last year, an IEA report defined “no investment in new fossil fuel supply projects, starting today” as critical for net-zero emissions by 2050. The UN Secretary-General has echoed this “We can no longer afford big fossil fuel infrastructure anywhere. Such investments simply deepen our predicament.” Yet banks have made clear they will not stop financing fossil fuels.

Our Demands Included: 

• Wall Street banks and the Federal Reserve should recognize the critical risk fossil fuel investments pose to our economy and get on board with the imperative to keep warming under 1.5 degrees.

• An end to fossil fuel finance through the banks & a phase out of all fossil fuel financing by 2030.

• The Federal Reserve to use existing regulatory and supervisory tools to begin limiting and phasing down the financing of emissions through curbing bank lending to fossil fuel infrastructure and projects – and all investment decisions, with spending and asset purchases aligned with the Paris Climate Agreement’s goal of limiting temperature rise to 1.5°C.

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s most recent assessment, there is “high confidence” that human-influenced rising temperatures are a direct cause of the extension of the wildfire season, increased drought, and decreased precipitation in the southwest United States. Coloradans are increasingly concerned over climate change, wildfire and water, with polling released earlier this year showing that 82% of Coloradans consider climate change a serious problem, with 98% saying wildfires that threaten homes and property are a serious problem here.

Want to get involved in defunding climate disaster? Join our Defunding Climate Disaster Committee here to get action alerts and an invitation to our next planning call.