Smoke and Mirrors of the Corporations

Many of  financial firms have expressed bold commitments towards environmental and social goals. Running contrary to their recent climate pledges five large financial firms from the United States and the United Kingdom are bankrolling an oil boom in the western Amazon.

BlackRock, Citi, JPMorgan Chase, HSBC and Goldman Sachs are enabling the development of millions of hectares for oil extraction in Peru, Ecuador and Colombia. These five firms have provided tens of billions of dollars in debt and equity financing to four oil companies that operate in the Amazon: Amerisur, GeoPark, Frontera Energy and Andes Petroleum.

BlackRock received praise for a recent commitment to "fundamentally reshape finance to deal with climate change" as it pledged to reduce investments in coal companies and minimise agribusiness contributions to deforestation. But according to the report, BlackRock has $2.5bn worth of stocks and bonds in GeoPark, Frontera Energy and Andes Petroleum.  Citi contributed $827m in debt financing for the expansion of Amazon crude oil operations by those same three energy firms. JPMorgan Chase was applauded when it recently imposed fresh restrictions on underwriting Arctic oil and gas. But the company held $401m of stocks and bonds in Geopark, Frontera Energy and Andes Petroleum. It contributed an additional $490m in debt financing for crude operations in the Amazon. JPMorgan Chase recently imposed fresh restrictions on underwriting Arctic oil and gas. But Amazon Watch research revealed that - as of the end of 2019 - the company held $401m of stocks and bonds in Geopark, Frontera Energy and Andes Petroleum. It contributed an additional $490m in debt financing for crude operations in the Amazon.

Proposed oil drilling in isolated rainforest areas threatens the most biodiverse region in the world, endangers the way of life for indigenous communities and paves the way for more severe climate change.

"Oil drilling is happening in the Amazon, and that is something that not a lot of people know," said Moira Birss, climate and finance director at Amazon Watch. She told Al Jazeera that this development is "contributing to the climate crisis, deforesting the precious Amazon rainforest and violating indigenous territorial rights". She added, "US and European investment banks are complicit in the environmental destruction. All of the five financial institutions we call attention to in our report have recently made climate and sustainability commitments and announcements, but they fall far short of where they need to be."

Essential to mitigating climate change, the Amazon rainforest absorbs about two billion tonnes of carbon dioxide each year - some 5 percent of all global emissions. As part of the Earth's natural thermostat, hemispheric weather patterns and temperature regulation are significantly determined by Amazon's state of equilibrium.

The ancestral indigenous lands of the western Amazon sit above oil and gas deposits, whose extraction causes climate woes and presents a financial risk for those firms funding the drilling. 

"The primary reason much of the western Amazon region remains largely free of industrial extraction," the report said, "is due to the successful efforts of indigenous peoples to protect and defend their territories."