Fossil fuels are a dead end for people and the planet. Big banks are financing them anyway. 2023 was the hottest year ever recorded, with an average global surface temperature 1.4°C above 19th-century averages. Climate impacts are intensifying: 2023 saw heat waves, droughts, stronger storms, atmospheric rivers, flooding, record-low global sea ice, tropical cyclones, and a global wildfire crisis. These impacts could quadruple heat deaths, and create food insecurity for over half a billion people on the planet. Unless action is taken now, it’s estimated that climate change will kill an additiona ..read more

Just like you need insurance to drive a car, fossil fuel companies need insurance to build and operate their infrastructure. That’s why they’re such a critical target in the fight against climate chaos. No insurance = no more fossil fuel projects. During the first-ever Global Week of Action against Insurers on February 26 – March 3, 2024, people worldwide—from the United Kingdom to Uganda—gathered to hold insurers accountable for their significant role in the climate crisis and demand they stop insuring fossil fuels. The movement against methane gas Chubb, Liberty Mutual, and AIG are among th ..read more

Rainforest Action Network (RAN) Voices Support for Majority Action’s Exempt Solicitation Filing to Remove Clayton Rose, the Chair of Bank of America’s Enterprise Risk Committee and Responds to Bank of America’s 2024 Annual Proxy Report 2023 was the hottest year on record, and last year, world nations reached a landmark agreement to “transition global energy systems away from fossil fuels” but instead of strengthening its positions and policies to reflect the scope and severity of the climate crisis and international resolve to act on it, Bank of America is backtracking on longstanding, as well ..read more

Last week, we dipped our toes in the warm waters of South Florida at a gathering of elite investment firms and consumer goods companies known as the Consumer Analyst Group of New York (CAGNY) conference. But it wasn’t all fun in the sun: Conference headliners at this year’s event included Mondelēz International and Procter & Gamble — two of the world’s worst drivers of tropical deforestation, which is responsible for up to 20% of global greenhouse gas emissions. The irony that CAGNY took place in Boca Raton, located in a region facing catastrophic sea-level rise due to climate change, was ..read more

As the real-world impacts of hurricanes, wildfires, droughts and sea level rise continue to accelerate, it is more clear than ever that the people who did the least to contribute to global carbon emissions are the first to feel the consequences of the climate crisis. Far too often, it is Indigenous, black and island nation communities who are bearing the brunt of the global pollution spewed for decades by wealthy countries of the Global North. For that reason, in addition to our campaigns to challenge abuses of corporate power, Rainforest Action Network (RAN) also provides direct support to th ..read more

The future of our planet remains in our hands at the moment. But any solutions toward a sustainable future lie at the intersection of forests, climate and human rights. For nearly 40 years, Rainforest Action Network (RAN) has undertaken bold campaigns to hold some of the world’s biggest corporations accountable for business models that are linked to forest destruction, loss of biodiversity, climate change, and the marginalization of Indigenous Peoples’ and local communities’ rights and livelihoods. Thank you for being a crucial part of our Network.            We ..read more

Tropical rainforests are home to much of the world’s terrestrial biodiversity and are critical to climate stability. However, these ecosystems and the people who depend on them are under severe threat from the continued expansion of agribusiness and logging. While the devastating social and environmental harms related to these industries are widely known, behind the scenes, the finance sector plays an outsized role in global deforestation by financing agribusiness and logging companies. The inaugural report, Banking on Biodiversity Collapse, launched on ‘Finance Day’ at COP28 by the Forests &a ..read more

I joined a delegation of women who are on the frontlines of fighting fracking and liquefied methane gas (LNG) in Texas, where we toured European countries with ties to this deadly fossil fuel industry. Methane gas is fracked in the Permian Basin and transported by pipeline to port communities like Corpus Christi, Port Arthur, or the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. The gas is then cooled to a liquid form, stored in colossal tanker ships, and shipped worldwide to countries like Germany, Spain, and Portugal. My community, the Rio Grande Valley, has opposed the Texas LNG, Rio Grande LNG, and the assoc ..read more

2023 marks the 30th anniversary of our small grants program at Rainforest Action Network — Community Action Grants. Community Action Grants provides critical and rapid funding — sometimes the very first funding — for people fighting for their own communities. CAG supports people protecting millions of acres of forest, keeping millions of tons of carbon in the ground, and protecting the human rights, land rights, labor rights and the right of self-determination for local communities across the globe. To date, our grantmaking program has made more than one thousand grants totaling more than $6,5 ..read more

Insurance companies are supposed to protect us from catastrophic risks. Yet when it comes to the largest threat to humanity – climate change – insurers are perpetuating dependence on fossil fuels by insuring new coal, oil and gas projects. Incredibly, at the same time they are pouring gasoline onto the fire of climate chaos, they are denying coverage for individuals living in climate-risk areas. Over the last year and a half, RAN has worked with partner organizations within the Insure Our Future Coalition to expose the hypocrisy rampant among insurers. Our work has resulted in some targeted in ..read more