Campaigners target ING in Valentine’s Day themed actions in nine countries
Rieke Butijn,
Climate campaigner and researcher,
BankTrack,
+31649229622 (CET timezone)
![](https://www.banktrack.org/thumbimage.php?image=valentijn_website_horizontaal_crop.png&width=800&cropratio=16:9)
Rieke Butijn,
Climate campaigner and researcher,
BankTrack,
+31649229622 (CET timezone)
Yesterday, ahead of Valentine’s Day, an international coalition of people affected by ING-funded projects and climate justice organisations took action around the world to call on ING to stop financing destructive companies and projects. The coalition, convened by BankTrack, Fossil Free NL and Extinction Rebellion Netherlands, organised actions at ING offices in different places in the Netherlands, Houston (US), Prague (Czech Republic), and Melbourne (Australia), and online in among others Mozambique.
The campaigners highlighted that, in spite of claiming to have “sustainability at the heart of what we do”, ING is still among the top 30 biggest fossil fuel financiers globally. According to a report by SOMO and Milieudefensie released last week, ING’s financing of upstream oil and gas companies expanding production and infrastructure is 10.6 times larger than the bank reports itself. At the end of 2023, ING’s outstanding loans and bonds to companies that continue to expand oil & gas production and infrastructure stood at EUR 26.4 billion.
The coalition called on ING to improve its human and Indigenous rights record, end finance to projects and companies expanding coal, oil, gas and coal-based steel projects, phase out all existing fossil financing in line with the Paris Agreements goals, and fast-track finance for a just energy transition.
Rieke Butijn, Climate campaigner and researcher at BankTrack, said: “Ahead of Valentine's Day, people around the world are calling on ING to stop breaking our hearts. From Mexico to Australia, Czechia to the U.S. Gulf Coast, communities are feeling the real harm caused by the projects and companies ING finances. If ING doesn't listen to those affected or potentially affected and changes course, the message is clear: the world won’t show ING any love.”
Breaking hearts around the world
Germany, France and the United States: One of the fossil fuel sectors that ING heavily finances is liquefied methane gas (LNG). Activists from Urgewald paid a visit to the ING office in Berlin to call on the bank to stop financing LNG. This call was echoed by Reclaim Finance who published a blog calling ING out on its double standard in its approach to the sector: excluding direct finance for export terminals but continuing to finance the companies behind them.
ING is particularly a big financier of LNG in the Gulf South in the US. ING has financed seven LNG terminals in Texas and Louisiana, and also finances companies such as Venture Global that have plans to build new terminals. In September 2024, ING committed to end direct finance for LNG export terminals. However, campaigners point out that this commitment will only come into force in 2026, and that the commitment only applies to project-specific finance; a major loophole. The terminals that ING finances contribute to the already high levels of air and water pollution, with severe health consequences for the predominantly low-income African-American, Afro-diaspora and Latin American communities. They also negatively impact local industries such as shrimping and fishing. For the global action, community organisers and activists from Louisiana and Texas headed to the Houston ING office with Valentine’s Day gifts and messages.
James Hiatt from For a Better Bayou, says: “ING continues to bankroll the destruction of our communities here in Southwest Louisiana, where LNG export terminals like Calcasieu Pass, Sabine Pass and Cameron LNG are polluting our air, driving up energy costs, fueling the climate crisis, and devastating the multi-generational fishing industry. If ING is serious about its climate commitments and human rights, it must stop financing LNG expansion immediately. Our communities refuse to be sacrificed for corporate profit.”
![](https://www.banktrack.org/thumbimage.php?image=untitled_design_3.png)
Australia: Activists in Melbourne called on ING to take responsibility for its financing of Australia’s largest producers and expanders of oil and gas, Woodside Petroleum and Santos. Santos is developing the Barossa gas project off the coast of the Tiwi Islands in Australia and is a shareholder in the Papua LNG project in Papua New Guinea. Both projects are controversial for lack of evidence of Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) of the local Indigenous communities.
Rachel Deans, oil and gas campaigner at Market Forces, states that: “It’s outrageous that ING couldn’t keep its promise to end finance for pure play companies developing new oil and gas fields for 24 hours before it poured US$25 million into Australian fossil fuel developer, Santos. ING needs to come clean and explain how its decision to finance Australia’s two biggest oil and gas expanders, Santos and Woodside, is consistent with its own climate policy.”
![](https://www.banktrack.org/thumbimage.php?image=melbourne_ing__dsc08306.jpg)
Czechia: In Prague, activists led by Re-Set handed over a giant heart-shaped card at an ING office. The activists called on ING to cut ties with Czech energy giant EPH (Energetický a Průmyslový Holding). In recent years, EPH has taken over many coal mines and power plants, and instead of rapidly closing them down it is extending their life times. In addition, it has plans to expand gas power plants across Europe as well as a landfill site in Caslav that is responsible for massive local impacts.
Radek Kubala, campaigner at Re-Set says: “Yesterday, we released a report exposing the misleading practices employed by EPH to mask the fact that it remains one of Europe’s largest coal companies without a credible transition plan. Moreover, instead of going full speed on renewables EPH is pushing for the move from coal to gas. Financiers such as ING should cut ties with companies like EPH that are seriously delaying the much-needed just energy transition.”
![](https://www.banktrack.org/thumbimage.php?image=prague_ing_7.jpg)
Mexico: ING is also Europe’s third-largest financier of steel, an industry responsible for 11% of global CO2 emissions and for severe community impacts. In Mexico, the organisation Tsikini supported the day of action to protest ING's relationship with ArcelorMittal, the world's second-largest steel producer. For ArcelorMittal's iron ore mine in Mexico, hundreds of hectares of forest have been cut down, the mine is drying up local water resources and Indigenous defenders who oppose the mine have disappeared or been murdered.
Eduardo Mosqueda, who with Tsikini represents the family of a murdered indigenous anti-mining activist, said: "ING is breaking our hearts by continuing to finance ArcelorMittal with full knowledge of the environment and social destruction it causes in Mexico. Enough is enough!"
Netherlands: solidarity actions also took place across Europe. In the Netherlands, actions took place at ING branches in Rotterdam, Zwolle, Utrecht, Hilversum, Almere and the headquarters in Amsterdam. In Amsterdam, activists gathered in front of the bank’s headquarters to deliver a large Valentine's Day card and hand out cards to employees, accompanied by a string quartet. The cards asked ING, ‘Will you be our Valentine or remain the Villain?’
![](https://www.banktrack.org/thumbimage.php?image=netherlands_ing_action_collage.png)
Mozambique and Italy: ING also received a Valentine’s day message from Justiça Ambiental (JA!) from Mozambique, calling out the bank on its finance for Eni, the Italian oil major developing the Coral North FLNG project in conflict-torn Cabo Delgado, Mozambique. Campaigners from ReCommon in Italy paid a visit to the ING office in Milan in solidarity with affected communities.
![](https://www.banktrack.org/thumbimage.php?image=milan_ing_dsc00745.jpg)
Notes for editors
All visuals above can be found in high definition here.
More information on the coalition and ING's funding can be found here.