Press Releases & Media Infos

• 57 international companies involved in 48 joint ventures with Russian oil and gas companies in 21 countries 
• 14 of these joint ventures are producing oil and gas within Russia 
• Since 2019, the Russian fossil fuel industry received close to US$ 70 billion in financing 

• NGOs call for an immediate embargo of Russian coal, oil, gas and nuclear fuel imports to the European Union
• EU currently imports more Russian gas than before the invasion of Ukraine
• French companies are the top European business partners of Russia’s state-owned nuclear giant Rosatom

• 92 NGOs and CSOs call on financial institutions to reject EU Taxonomy's greenwashing attempt by excluding gas and nuclear energy from their “sustainable” or “green” funds and bonds. 
• The war on Ukraine serves as a painful reminder that Western democracies need to eliminate their fossil fuel dependency to curb the influence of authoritarian regimes like Russia. 

• The German Government must put an embargo on energy imports from Russia
• German utilities still importing Russian hard coal and fossil gas
• German banks provided loans for Russian energy companies as late as December 2021

• Commercial banks channeled US$ 1.5 trillion to the coal industry since 2019.

• Financial institutions from the US, China, Japan, India, Canada and the UK are responsible for over 80% of coal financing and investment.

As a first among the big conventional banks in Germany, Commerzbank not only commits to ending coal energy by 2030; it also lays down the first more serious exclusion criteria for oil and gas. To a large extent, we can count these developments as a victory for civic engagement. Nevertheless, Commerzbank still misses the chance to put its portfolio on a clear and steady 1.5 °C course today.