Beginning September 20, millions of people across the globe will be joining the #GlobalClimateStrike week of action, showing political leaders that people everywhere want no more excuses and bad faith – action on climate should happen today and be radical.
Huub Scheele, Interim Executive Director | 20 September 2019
© Jörg Farys / Fridays for Future
Bankwatch and other NGOs are supporting the global strike. Our staff will be taking part in street actions, we’ll put up a protest banner on our website and post information about actions in our countries of operation, and we’ll do our best to show support to strikers everywhere.
We also call on staff at the two banks we have monitored for years, the European Investment Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, to do the same – support the global climate strike.
This summer, the EIB, the house bank of the EU, proposed an end to the financing of all fossil fuels beyond 2020, becoming the first multilateral financial institution to make such a commitment in line with the Paris Agreement. We at Bankwatch welcomed the news.
While we’re waiting for the draft energy policy to be approved by the board of the bank, we call on the staff of the EIB to show their support for the global climate strike. This will demonstrate that the EIB is truly a bank for the future, and it will encourage political actors to make the right decision about future investments of the EIB.
At the EBRD, on the other hand, the reality is less promising. The bank carries on with oil and gas projects and continues to provide financing to utilities which rely on coal. As the EIB example shows, the EBRD can and should do better.
Therefore, we call on the EBRD staff too to support the climate strike. Show your support for the strike and tell the EBRD leadership and the national representatives on the board of the bank that it’s high time for the EBRD to become a bank for the future too.
Dear EIB and EBRD staff,
Please join us in showing support for the strikes by joining the digital action – putting up a banner on your websites, posting content on social media accounts, selfies in the bank cafeteria with reasons why you support the strike – anything. Use this amazing global momentum to call for a real transformation of your bank. It’s in our common interest.
Sincerely,
Huub Scheele
Interim Executive Director
On behalf of Bankwatch and its member groups
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