BankTrack today releases its 2024 Annual Report, detailing its advocacy, successes and setbacks in its ongoing mission to hold commercial banks accountable for their role in financing the climate crisis, biodiversity collapse, and human rights violations.

The report arrives at a time when international cooperation on addressing this crisis is at an all-time low and where ever more banks are retreating from their earlier climate and sustainability commitments.

Despite this challenging operating environment, BankTrack’s work led to several meaningful steps forward in 2024, won together with our many partners and allies:

• More banks said “no” to damaging projects and companies, including Papua LNG, the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) and Alamtri Resources (formerly Adaro).
• Compared to 2023, some 30 additional banks set iron and steel decarbonisation targets, and five adopted new policies on metallurgical coal.
• In response to a BankTrack complaint, UN rapporteurs warned the Equator Principles that establishing an effective grievance mechanism at the Principles is “vital”.
• We secured commitments from 16 banks not to provide project finance for coal expansion projects in Asia.
• In Colombia at COP16 we co-filed a formal complaint against the Taskforce for Nature related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) for greenwashing.
• We helped expose nearly $7 trillion in fossil fuel financing and $395 billion linked to biodiversity collapse since 2016, in the Banking on Climate Chaos and Banking on Biodiversity Collapse reports.

The report also highlights BankTrack’s launch of the End Coal Finance campaign, contributions to the Plastic Banks Tracker, and its updated Global Human Rights Benchmark.

“As we appreciate the positive impacts of our work, we have to look the changing global reality squarely in the face,” said Johan Frijns, Executive Director of BankTrack. “This includes ensuring steps backward by banks don’t go unnoticed, as well as acknowledging those banks whose commitments stand firm. It also, vitally, includes ensuring that communities impacted by commercial bank finance are supported in their efforts to defend their rights and secure their interests.”

The 2024 Annual Report is available to download here.