Download the report – www.platformlondon.org/dm.pdf
Watch the video – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuWGg6a__gE
Check out the online presentation summary – https://prezi.com/2zc3gxujogli/dirty-money/
All over the world, diverse groups from community activists to schoolchildren, small businesses to faith-based networks, are starting to take action on climate change. Big business is following suit, but often with tactics that bring their integrity into question. Climate change is being used as to create a new kind of brand identity, without any of the fundamental changes needed to tackle the root causes of the problem itself – the use of fossil fuels.
‘Dirty Money – Corporate greenwash and RBS coal finance’ takes the case of the Royal Bank of Scotland, an international bank with interests across the fossil fuel sector that is promoting itself as a genuine actor in climate change efforts. RBS is the UK high street bank that has been most heavily involved in financing the hydrocarbon industry. It is sponsoring Climate Week (https://www.climateweek.com/), a nation-wide event involving hundreds of organisations around the country that is undermined by sponsorship from RBS.
In the years from 2008 to 2010 inclusive, RBS was involved in providing finance worth almost €8 billion to companies listed in the world’s 20 biggest operators of coal mines and generators of coal-based electricity.
All international banks were ranked according to the amount of finance they had been involved in providing to the 20 biggest coal mining operators and the 20 biggest generators of coal-based electricity. For the 20 largest coal companies, RBS was ranked 8th out of 35, with HSBC ranking 10th, and Barclays 29th. For the 20 largest coal-based electricity generators, RBS was ranked 3rd, with Barclays coming 4th and HSBC 11th out of 69.