New York, NY – Environmental activists gathered outside Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group offices in New York City on September 1, 2020 to protest the company’s participation in the destruction of the Amazon rainforest, as part of a week of action against climate change.
Activists dove into the privately owned public fountain in front of MUFG Bank’s New York headquarters with inflatable trees on “fire” and an 18 foot banner that read “MUFG Stop Burning Rainforest”, to expose their bankrolling of climate change.
In the past year, MUFG made good progress by adopting and strengthening its financing policies, but we’ve yet to see the impact on the ground. Through its lending to rogue palm oil and fossil fuel companies, MUFG continues to bankroll the growing climate crisis, furthering deforestation, species extinction, and human rights abuses.
MUFG recently adopted policies around financing forestry, palm oil, coal power, and coal mining operations, but received criticism from NGOs including RAN that its policies don’t go far enough to align with the Paris Climate Agreement or the Sustainable Development Goal of halting deforestation by 2020. Unlike its best-in-class peers, MUFG makes no mention of the leading agro-commodity standard of “No Deforestation, No Peatland, No Exploitation” (NDPE) nor commits to a Paris-compliant phase-out of fossil fuels. As of 2018, MUFG was the 6th largest global lender and underwriter of companies driving tropical deforestation in Southeast Asia and the 7th largest global lender and underwriter to all fossil fuels. In Japan, MUFG is the largest financier of the palm oil sector and the largest financier of fossil fuels, most notably coal power. MUFG’s recent commitment to restrict financing for coal power projects was cautiously welcomed by NGOs amid concerns with noticeable loopholes.
Amazon Watch activists also gathered outside BlackRock offices in New York City to protest the company’s participation in the destruction of the Amazon rainforest, and to demand a stop to bankrolling Conflict Palm Oil, species extinction, and climate chaos.
The actions are part of a national week of action against climate change.
© Erik McGregor – erikrivas@hotmail.com – 917-225-8963