More than 60 organisations have written to Equinor's biggest bankers warning them not to fund the company's controversial Rosebank oil field due to climate risks.
In a letter to 20 of Equinor’s financiers - including Barclays, JP Morgan and BNP Paribas - campaigners pointed out that funding the North Sea development would be in breach of their commitment to limit global warming to 1.5°C.
The letter was convened by BankTrack and Uplift and signed by organisations including Action Aid, Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace.
It outlines how, due to Rosebank, banks’ financial relationship with Equinor risks being incompatible with their own climate commitments and exposing banks to significant reputational, legal and financial risk. The letter calls on the banks not to finance the project directly and to engage with Equinor to cease its development.
All 20 banks are members of the Net Zero Banking Alliance, which commits them to align their financing with the goals of the Paris Agreement.
Rosebank is the largest undeveloped oil field in the North Sea, containing an estimated 500 million barrels of oil. The campaign groups stated that the CO2 emissions from burning this oil would equate to more than the annual emissions of 28 low-income countries combined. These emissions would also see the UK oil and gas industry breach climate targets agreed with the government.
From 2016 to 2022, these 20 banks provided at least $16bn in financing to Equinor via lending and underwriting. Santander, Barclays, JP Morgan and BNP Paribas alone provided over $6bn.
Tessa Khan, executive director of Uplift, said: “So far, Equinor has shut its ears to the multiple warnings, from the UN secretary general, climate scientists and others, that there can be no expansion of oil if we’re to protect our children from catastrophic climate change.
“But money talks, and these banks need to join the growing chorus demanding that Equinor cease its plans to expand oil and gas drilling - their climate commitments, if they have any integrity, bar them from funding Rosebank.”
The UK Government is expected to make a decision on Rosebank imminently.
Earlier this week, campaigners put the government and the North Sea Transition Authority on notice of legal action over potentially approving the oil field off the coast of Shetland.
Uplift wrote to the Secretary of State and North Sea Transition Authority stating that it has strong grounds to believe that an approval of Rosebank would be unlawful.
It noted a potential failure to ensure a transparent and participatory decision-making process; the incompatibility of the development with the UK’s climate targets; a potential failure to assess the environmental impacts created by burning Rosebank’s oil; and the marine environmental impacts of the field.
The possible legal challenge comes in the wake of fresh warnings from climate scientists that the 1.5°C global warming threshold could be broken within the next four years.
Rosebank’s development would see a pipeline laid through a protected area of the North Sea - the Faroe-Shetland Sponge Belt - potentially harming this fragile eco-system and the diverse marine life it supports.
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