What we do

Whether Saudi Aramco, TotalEnergies, RWE, or Siemens Energy, most coal, oil, and gas companies actively undermine climate protection efforts. They also take severe environmental and human rights risks in order to extract, transport, or burn fossil fuels: drilling for oil and gas in the Arctic or in the deep sea, fracking on a massive scale, constructing pipelines through protected natural areas, and building LNG terminals or gas-fired power plants close to residential communities despite the associated health risks.

We work to ensure that people around the world whose livelihoods these corporations threaten are heard at annual general meetings. At the same time, we confront the companies’ financial backers—targeting polluters where they are most vulnerable: their financing.

Every year, commercial banks such as Deutsche Bank, Santander, and JPMorgan Chase channel hundreds of billions of US dollars into coal, oil, and gas companies. Asset managers like BlackRock, DWS, and Deka as well as public pension funds hold shares and bonds in fossil fuel corporations worth billions. Insurers such as Munich Re and Allianz provide coverage for power plants, pipelines, and other destructive fossil fuel projects.

Without banks, investors, and insurers operating in the background, new mines, pipelines, or power plants would not be viable. For this reason, we push financial institutions to adopt strong climate policies that exclude fossil fuel industries from their services. We also engage with regulators to help redirect financial flows toward a just and equitable transition.

So-called development banks have a mandate to reduce poverty around the globe. To this end, they finance large-scale energy and infrastructure projects. However, these projects repeatedly result in population displacement and environmental destruction. Through their immense financial leverage, such institutions can lock countries into fossil fuel dependency and debt spirals.

The underlying issues which we tackle include weak environmental and human rights standards, a lack of independent oversight, and limited opportunities for meaningful participation by affected communities in project regions.

In our efforts to stop destructive financial flows, we rely on a broad network of international partners and allies. These partnerships enable us to work directly with affected communities and local experts, provide mutual support, and share knowledge to stop fossil fuel expansion.

A particular focus of this work is (South) East Asia, where we help build a transregional civil society platform (RIMA). At the same time, we have more than 30 years of experience in financial campaigning to share—for example through the “Finance Campaigner School.”