WestLB Takes A Brave Step In The Right Direction

This post is by Yann Louvel, BankTrack Climate and Energy Campaign Coordinator. Last month we got some promising news from WestLB, the German bank. They produced a new policy on Arctic drilling (which our friends at Platform have written about here) and they published an update of their coal policy. While the first edition of [...]

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New UBS Policy Fizzles

‘Tis the season for new bank environmental and social policies! Last Friday, UBS was the latest to announce an updated “Responsible Banking” policy. Let’s see how it stacks up. First off, we have to commend UBS and other banks for choosing to make environmental and social commitments public. Transparency is a critically necessary component of [...]

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RBC Takes Step Away From Tar Sands

It took nearly two years, but today Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) finally adopted environmental and social standards on its financing in the tar sands. Great! So what does that mean? Clearly, it means a significant about-face on tar sands for one of the world’s biggest banks. Before today, RBC trailed its peers on basic [...]

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Greenwash And Cargill: Growing Together

Cargill just released their 2010 Corporate Responsibility Report, which provides an overview of Cargill’s amazing lackluster efforts to address supply chain issues including sourcing palm oil associated with rainforest destruction and social conflict. Titled “Growing Together,” the report is a seriously misleading account of the environmental and human rights achievements of the world’s largest privately [...]

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Krafting a New Story on Palm Oil

For those following the recent developments of palm oil in the news, you know that this hot commodity is becoming increasingly controversial and companies are starting to either push to get the tropical oil out of their supply chain altogether or to adopt a strong palm policy to ensure they are not contributing to rainforest [...]

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RBC Tables an Offer on Tar Sands

A light at the end of the tunnel?Photo:  . SantiMB . via Flickr The tar sands tide may finally be turning at Canada’s biggest bank. RBC is among the largest financiers of Canada’s Tar Sands but so far lacks policies adopted by other banks that seek to limit harm to Indigenous rights, water quality and [...]

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The Carbon Logic Problem Statement | Grist

The Carbon Logic Problem Statement by Ken Ward. All too often those debating the solutions and proposed actions to tackle global warming fail to challenge the assumptions. While it's important to deal with emissions it can be argued that the root causes of emissions lie farther upstream and can more effectively deal with the challenges we are facing. Cutting emissions is good. Investing in clean energy and cutting emissions before the fuel is readied is better.

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