rich 1.0 Action Network https://actionnetwork.org <link href='https://actionnetwork.org/css/style-embed-v3.css' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css' /><script src='https://actionnetwork.org/widgets/v6/petition/chase-stop-funding-the-climate-crisis?format=js&source=widget'></script><div id='can-petition-area-chase-stop-funding-the-climate-crisis' style='width: 100%'><!-- this div is the target for our HTML insertion --></div> Houston Youth Climate Strike https://actionnetwork.org/groups/houston-youth-climate-strike https://actionnetwork.org//images/generic_facebook.jpg Dear Jamie Dimon, What’s it like looking down from the top of Chase tower amidst a climate crisis you’ve funded? As Houston is battered by hurricanes every year now, do the floodwaters look less deep from 30 stories up? In the recent blackout, what was it like sitting at the top of a gleaming skyscraper while millions around you shivered in their unlit homes? Thirty floors down, we are at ground zero of the climate crisis. Our generation, Gen Z, knows the price of climate disasters better than anyone. Before we learned about money, we watched droughts carve cracks into our gardens. Before we knew of banks, we waded through the knee-deep floodwaters that rushed into our homes. Now, as we turn old enough to manage our own finances, we know why. Make no mistake, younger generations know that large banks are the drivers of the climate crisis that is threatening our survival. At the head of the pack is none other than JP Morgan Chase, watching from the penthouse of Chase Tower as the city around it is pillaged by climate disasters. However, JP Morgan Chase is no ordinary leader of dirty banking. With true predatory spirit, Chase has clawed his way into fossil fuel funding history, dumping  $268 billion into coal, oil, and gas from 2016 to 2020 alone. Just this past year, Chase lent an earth-shattering 63% more money than any other bank to fund fossil fuels. Even worse, Chase specializes in high-risk investment, funneling money into especially destructive extraction methods such as offshore drilling, fracking, liquified natural gas, and tar sands oil. In the words of The Rolling Stone, “Chase is in a league of its own. It’s the First National Bank of Flood and Fire. It’s Hades Savings and Loan. It is the Doomsday Bank.” It is astoundingly clear that JP Morgan Chase has spared no expense in selling out our future. Here in Texas, on the front lines of the climate crisis, Chase has shamelessly flaunted its love for fossil fuels through consistent support for the Wink to Webster pipeline: the 650-mile line, proposed in 2020, carries over a million barrels of fracked oil each day. Chase’s investment in the construction of this pipeline has unlocked further expansion of the most prolific oil basin on Earth, exposing countless communities to pollution and blatantly undermining efforts to move to a cleaner future. Worse, Chase remains a significant funder of the expansion of Line 3, the single most destructive fossil fuel project in progress today. Since its construction, Line 3 has seen all manner of cracks, holes, and other deficiencies; in 1997, these hazards contributed to the largest inland oil spill ever recorded, where 1.7 million barrels of oil were flung into Grand Rapids, MN. Numerous other disasters, like the 2010 spill in Michigan, have plagued the pipeline, costing billions to clean. Currently, the old Line 3 sits in the ground, leaching toxic chemicals into the surrounding soil and water. The new project aims to reinvigorate the pipeline, facilitating the daily transport of 800,000 barrels of tar sands crude oil from Alberta to Wisconsin. The new line will flagrantly intrude on the treaty lands of Anishinaabe peoples while polluting rivers, lakes, wild rice beds, and untouched aquatic ecosystems. By funding this atrocious attempt to extort value from the environment, Chase is blatantly prioritizing their corporate financial interests over our inheritance of a habitable planet. Despite superficial attempts to greenwash their investments, it is clear that environmental concerns have been and continue to be swept under the rug. Based on their website's overview of sustainability plans and “Paris-aligned financing commitment,” Chase has committed to goals it has no intention of keeping. Since pledging to achieve operational carbon neutrality in October 2020, the firm has continued to invest in fossil-fuel financing. These words are meaningless without the tangible and authentic redirection of funds. Claiming to have “a history of advancing environmentally sustainable solutions” does not make it true. As proudly advertised on the website, Chase issued $1B inaugural social bonds, with proceeds expected to fund affordable housing projects, this year. This is not enough. Climate change is not an issue to be dealt with over time; it is an emergency that requires urgent and meaningful action. In a 2010 New York Times article, Jamie Dimon was referred to as “America’s Least Hated Banker.” While that may have been the case 11 years ago, the generation whose lives have been drastically impacted by climate change likely won’t share the sentiment. Dimon has claimed to have a “democratic heart,” but after examining Chase’s role in exacerbating the climate crisis, it’s clear where his heart truly is. . Unless Dimon wishes to forfeit generations of future customers, he will have to do more than simply have a “democratic heart.” As young people, the future and the planet we will inherit from the older generation are at stake, and Chase Bank has the obligation to enact change. The youth climate movement calls for Jamie Dimon, CEO of Chase Bank, to immediately cease funding of all fossil fuel projects, or lose an entire generation of customers. Our demands: Enact a proactive plan to effectively phase out all support for fossil fuels in a timely manner that is aligned with the Paris Agreement. Zero out the bank's overall climate impact in line with 1.5°C. Immediately terminate funding of companies and projects that are expanding fossil fuel extraction/transport and deforestation: Tar sands extraction, arctic drilling, pipelines, and coal. Close the loopholes in existing restrictions on financing fossil fuel infrastructure, especially in coal companies and the Arctic regions. https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/chase-stop-funding-the-climate-crisis