European banks committed to supporting actions against climate change face accusations of sustaining a double standard leveled at them by indigenous groups in Ecuador, after a report named them as important players in the Amazon rainforest oil trade.
Stand.earth and Amazon Watch said in their report that ING, Credit Suisse, Natixis, BNP Paribas, UBS and Rabobank were the largest sponsors in shipping Ecuadorian crude to refineries in the United States during the most recent decade for $10 billion dollars.
Each of the named banks, after reviewing the report, referred to the environmental commitments they had made such as supporting the 2015 Paris climate agreement, protecting forests and supporting the United Nations sustainable development goals.
But indigenous communities resisting oil industry expansion plans in their territories pointed out that any bank supporting the oil trade was complicit in growing threats to the planet’s largest rainforest.
The Amazon rainforest, which spans nine countries in South America, faces worsening forest fires and clearing for agriculture and mining.
According to the reports both from the indigenous communities and the reflection in the statements of the banks mentioned, approximately 15 to 17 percent of the original forest has been destroyed, mainly since the 1970s.
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