Fossil fuel financing across 60 of the world’s largest banks has reached $6.9 billion since the Paris Agreement was signed eight years ago, according to new research.

A report from the Rainforest Action Network reveals that in 2023, banks invested $347 billion on fossil fuel expansion. This brings the total amount spent on expanding fossil fuel projects since 2016 to $3.3 trillion.

JP Morgan was shown to be the top financier for fossil fuels between 2016 and 2023 at $430.9 billion, with Citigroup in second place at $396.3 billion, and Bank of America in third after spending $333.2 billion.

The three US banks have once again been outed as the worst culprits following a recent report that found they were the biggest lenders for carbon-intensive livestock industries.

The study published last month by Netherlands-based research group Profundo and US environmental organisation Friends of the Earth found that between 2016 and 2023, 58 US banks provided $134 billion in lending and underwriting to meat, dairy, animal feed, food processing, and agri-commodity companies.

More than half of the financing examined in the report came from Bank of America, Citigroup, and JP Morgan Chase; collectively leading to 24.4 million metric tons of CO2e emissions.

The researchers said at the time that the US banks were "undermining" their climate commitments.

“As one of the world's largest financiers to both traditional and clean energy companies, we help power today's global economy," a JP Morgan Chase spokesperson told FStech. "We believe our data reflects our activities more comprehensively and accurately than estimates by third parties.

"Reflecting our strategy of supporting the build-out of zero-carbon power, we set a net-zero aligned Energy Mix target and will disclose a clean energy supply financing ratio.”

FStech has reached out to Citigroup and Bank of America for comment.

Last week, the Federal Reserve announced that US banks had come up against data gaps and modelling challenges during an exploratory pilot climate scenario analysis exercise.

The analysis was carried out to help six of America's top banks understand the resiliency of their business models to climate-related financial risks.

The pilot, conducted by the Federal Reserve and the Bank of America; Citigroup; Goldman Sachs; JPMorgan Chase; Morgan Stanley; and Wells Fargo, found that these issues occur when estimating the financial impacts of highly complex and uncertain risks over various time horizons.

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