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Senators Challenge Bank on Climate Commitment Reversal

"Your recent statements and actions indicate a retreat by JPM from the firm's earlier pledges to help mitigate climate change. This is disappointing, raising questions about the impact of these policy changes moving forward, and about whether JPM misled investors and the public when you made these commitments."
US Senators Markey, Merkley, Sanders, Warren, Welch and Whitehouse
"Your recent statements and actions indicate a retreat by JPM from the firm's earlier pledges to help mitigate climate change. This is disappointing, raising questions about the impact of these policy changes moving forward, and about whether JPM misled investors and the public when you made these commitments."
US Senators Markey, Merkley, Sanders, Warren, Welch and Whitehouse

In a letter to JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, six Democratic Senators challenged the bank on "backsliding" on its "binding commitments on climate and environmental issues."

Senators Elizabeth Warren, Sheldon Whitehouse, Edward Markey, Peter Welch, Bernard Sanders and Jeffrey Merkley argued that the bank's "reversal represents a long term threat to the environment" given the fact that the bank "financed over $430 billion in fossil fuel projects since 2016, more than any other financial institution in the world." The Senators raised questions about whether the bank has been "misleading investors and the public."

The Senators cited the bank's membership in the Equator Principles, its commitment to the goals of the 2015 Paris Agreement, and as a signatory to Climate Action 100+, and the concurrent publicity the bank generated as a result of those commitments. The Senators highlighted an April 2024 letter to shareholders, in which the bank CEO "suddenly reverse[d]" those commitments, noting that the bank "changed its emissions reduction target for Oil and Gas End Use." The Senators speculated "the timing suggests JPM is responding to, or even fueling, the so-called 'anti-ESG movement.'"

The Senators urged Mr. Dimon to respond to several direct questions about the impact of these policy changes, and about whether the bank misled investors and the public when it made these commitments.

Primary Sources

  1. US Senate: Letter to Jamie Dimon, CEO JPMorgan Chase
  2. Peter Welch, US Senator for Vermont: Press Release: Welch, Senators Question JPMorgan on Climate Commitment Reversal

Tags

Jurisdiction
US - Federal
Organization
US Congress