Keeling Curve

Primary Project Category:

Project Summary / Description:

This project aims to halt the expansion of oil and gas drilling by securing Amazon Exclusion Policies from major global banks. In 2020, we secured financial exclusion commitments from the top four banks financing the trade in Ecuadorian Amazon oil. This restricted credit for Amazon oil, giving Indigenous leaders leverage to negotiate a moratorium on new oil leases. On the success of this effort, the Amazon Banks Database and Mapping Project was devised in 2022 to identify all banks involved in oil and gas activities in the Amazon in Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, and Colombia, and to secure commitments from a critical mass of banks to exit Amazon oil and gas. By restricting credit, the cost of borrowing goes up, and oil projects become harder to finance, leaving oil in the ground and leaving more rainforest intact. This reduces carbon emissions and maintains the Amazon's net carbon sink.

Regions of Operations:

How Project Affects Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions:

Replaces/avoids GHGs (e.g., projects that replace sources of GHGs, such as the burning of fossil fuels for electricity, heat, transport, or other energy uses), Removes/stores GHGs (e.g., projects that capture, sequester, or otherwise enhance the "sinks" that accumulate and store GHGs)

Best Estimate of GHG Avoidance/Reduction of This Project (Tonnes CO2 Equivalent/Year):

Impact on Underrepresented Groups:

Indigenous communities in the Amazon have fought the oil and gas industry for decades. They protest rights violations, the pollution and sickness in their communities, the threat to their food security and water quality, and how roads built by the oil and gas sector bring deforestation and biodiversity loss. Indigenous leaders asked for new ways to build leverage and open up avenues to hold industry and the government accountable, and to negotiate with financial institutions to pivot investment away from biome destruction. 

In 2020, we conducted financial research that led to 4 major banks excluding trade finance for Amazon oil from their lending portfolios. This send a shock wave through the industry and built power for Indigenous groups to negotiate a moratorium on new oil blocks in the Ecuadorian Amazon. We then set up the Exit Amazon Oil and Gas Campaign and designed the Amazon Exclusion Policy as a framework for further bank commitments.

In 2021, we identified a major gap in the movement to protect the Amazon; there was no movement that reflected recent tipping point science. To fill that gap, Stand.earth began co-coordinating the Amazonia for Life campaign with Indigenous partners to protect 80% of the Amazon by 2025. In September 2021, the IUCN passed Motion 129 to call global attention to the 80x25 ask, with support from more than 500 organizations and 60 foreign ministries from 30 countries. 

The new phase of the project is designed to build the financial conditions to empower the 80x25 movement.

Sub-Categories:

Website:

https://exitamazonoilandgas.org/ (when the database and mapping tool are ready to launch, they will be housed here. Please also see a higher quality version of the video via this link)

Mission Statement:

Stand.earth Research Group (SRG), the research arm of Stand.earth, is a leading non-profit research organization in the world. We support the global environmental community with cutting-edge investigative research to trace the sources of raw materials and energy used to drive the world economy. SRG conducts research around the world, including providing research and analysis for Stand.earth‚ ongoing campaign focused on Amazon protection. The Amazon Banks Database Mapping Project is an SRG/Stand.earth project done in collaboration with Amazon Watch and Earth-Insight and in support of Indigenous organizations including COICA, the Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon River Basin, and CONFENIAE, the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of the Ecuadorian Amazon. These groups all have a long-standing presence across the Amazonia region - especially in Ecuador, Peru, Columbia, and Brazil - and work together to plan strategy and engagement with industry and government to protect the biome from destruction.