At the beginning of November, through the online public welfare project, the reporter got to know Tanaka Tanaka, a college student who lives in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan. She told reporters that this year, she and her classmates took part in a research project in the school, and found that the foam produced when using shower gel is closely related to palm oil. She learned that because of the widespread use of palm oil in cleaning products, palm trees are being cut down and Paradise rainforest, the largest tropical rainforest in the Asia Pacific region, is being severely consumed. So Tanaka started using palm oil free cleaning products. But what worried her was that it was very difficult for her classmates and friends around her to replace the products with her, because more than 90% of the shelves in the convenience stores and shopping malls around were made of body soap, soap and disinfectant made of palm oil as foaming agent. She was very upset about this.

So, who will pay for the destruction of the paradise rainforest? Is it a multinational company that destroys the development of rainforest, a daily chemical enterprise that purchases a lot of palm oil, or a consumer? Recently, a new report released by portfolio earth, an environmental protection initiative, pointed out that the activities related to the financial system have damaged biodiversity, and banks have played a key role in it, and become the financial drivers behind the extinction.

The report shows that the world's top banks provide a large source of funding for ecologically damaging business activities. The data show that in the past 2019, the world's top banks invested more than $2.6 trillion in what governments and scientists regard as a major cause of biodiversity damage.

The banking and financial industry urgently needs to include the protection of biodiversity into the measurement standard

"At present, the global economic growth model urgently needs to be transformed, and the response to climate change and ecological crisis needs to be taken into consideration. In recent years, the government and enterprises have been the focus of people's talking about the protection of ecology and biodiversity, but in fact, banks and financial institutions are in the center of global development investment. I expect that in the future world, if a project wants to get financial support from the bank, it must make a positive contribution to ecological restoration and climate change, and on this basis, it can be funded. I think this is the original intention of this report and the future it envisions. " Said Kai Chan, a professor at the University of British Columbia and lead author of the ipbes global assessment.

Prior to that, financial investment activities causing biodiversity losses have evaded relevant regulations, and the related investment behaviors of the world's top banks have exacerbated the risk of biodiversity.

The 50 banks covered in the report are all concerned with financing to increase biodiversity risk. The average amount of financing provided by each bank is US $52 billion, with a maximum of US $210 billion and a minimum of US $1.3 billion.

Of the 10 banks that pose the highest risk to biodiversity, the top three are headquartered in the United States. About 26% of all loans and underwriting by the 50 banks are related to Bank of America, Citigroup and JP Morgan Chase. Wells Fargo, another US bank, is the fifth largest investor in biodiversity high-risk industries.

Among the top ten banks evaluated in the report are three Japanese banks (Mizuho Financial, Mitsubishi financial and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation) and three European banks (BNP Paribas, HSBC and Barclays).

Unfortunately, none of the banks reporting the assessment has established a sound system to assess and measure the impact of project loans on biodiversity, nor has any bank formulated comprehensive policies to prevent such impacts. Under the protection of current regulators and rules, banks do not have to bear any consequences.

Therefore, the report points out that there is an urgent need for the banking and financial sector to include biodiversity conservation as a measure. The commercial activities of banks should fundamentally reduce the impact on nature and stop financing new fossil fuel, deforestation, overfishing and ecosystem destruction projects. At the same time, governments should stop providing shelter for banks to destroy biodiversity, and re enact financial rules to require banks to take corresponding responsibility for ecological losses caused by their loans.

About 66% of bank investment directly causes biodiversity loss

At present, half of the world's GDP comes from nature and its related functions, and the dependence of many industries on nature is hidden in the supply chain. Tanaka's guidance professor told her that most economic activities, if we can protect nature, will give back to human beings.

But the portfolio earth report shows that the global economy is still destroying nature. The report is the first attempt to quantify the major industry-related activities of the world's top banks that cause biodiversity damage.

About 66% of the funds assessed in the report are related to activities that directly cause biodiversity loss (such as fishing, mining, etc.), and 34% of the funds are invested in companies that indirectly cause biodiversity loss (for example, increasing the demand for all links of the supply chain through commodity retail, processing and trade, or upgrading the processing and upgrading of raw materials in building materials). 32% of the loans and underwriting related to infrastructure, 25% to metal and mineral mining activities, and 20% to fossil fuels. Although commercial activities related to food production (agriculture and Fisheries) account for only 10% of the total investment of these top banks

Commercial activities related to food production (agriculture and Fisheries) account for only 10%, but agriculture and fisheries have the greatest impact on global biodiversity.

Moira birss, climate and finance director of Amazon watch, a non-governmental organization, said: "at present, in the Amazon rainforest, agribusiness, fossil fuel companies and mining companies are cutting down large areas of forests, which are caused by project investments that are not screened and evaluated by some top banks. If the Amazon rainforest is still home to most species in the future, financial institutions must stop investing trillions of dollars in these industries that cause biodiversity loss. "

Tanaka said that through the project research, she learned that under the influence of illegal logging, forest fire and palm tree planting, Paradise rainforest has become the fastest forest disappearing area in the world, resulting in a large number of greenhouse gas emissions. Moreover, nearly 90% of the world's palm oil is produced in Malaysia and Indonesia, and palm oil companies have expanded their market to all corners of the world through unrestricted oil palm cultivation.

"The common practice of these palm oil companies is to dig out river channels in the virgin forest, drain the water from peat forest through the river channel, cut down precious timber and transport it out of the river, and then light a fire to burn the forest to ashes. Finally, plant the seedlings of palm trees. In this process, countless rare animals have lost their habitat, and the orangutan and Sumatran tiger, which were common in this area in the past, have almost disappeared. If we don't act, maybe more species won't be able to wait for us to help. " Tanaka said.

"The global public has a say in the way their money is invested, and they have the right to prevent banks from causing serious harm to people and the planet," the report said. Countries in the world need to clarify the legal responsibility, responsibility and accountability mode of financial system in front of the ecosystem, so as to protect and restore the ecology. We can't rely on banks to find out. " Since the answer of the world's top banks was incorrect, we should correct it. Maybe it's hard to wait for the blue horse antelope and the shuombulk deer, but at least there are still some Fugu and Ili Pika waiting for us to protect.

Source: China Environment News