Banks urged to break ties with factory livestock farming

Sep 12 / Thomas King
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Despite the urgent call by the Paris Agreement to curb emissions, over half a trillion dollars in credit have been extended to the world's largest 55 industrial livestock companies. An average of $76.9 billion annually, which has driven the expansion of global meat and dairy production.
The environmental toll of industrial livestock production is enormous. The combined GHG emissions from the 55 largest companies surpass those of Japan, the world’s sixth-largest emitter. Just five of these corporations—JBS, Marfrig, Cargill, Tyson Foods, and Minerva—together produce an estimated 595 million tonnes of CO₂-equivalent emissions annually. This exceeds the total emissions of both the UK and Ireland.
Research indicates that livestock production alone could consume nearly half of the world's remaining 1.5°C carbon budget by 2030 and up to 80% by 2050. This growing concern has prompted scientists, such as Professor Hans Pörtner, co-chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), to emphasize the urgent need to reduce meat consumption and overhaul high-intensity agricultural systems. Without these shifts, global climate goals will likely remain out of reach.

The Stop Financing Factory Farming (S3F) coalition

Co-founded by the Global Forest Coalition and Friends of the Earth, in 2021, S3F has been instrumental in pressuring multilateral development banks (MDBs) to cease their financial support of industrial livestock. A notable success occurred in October 2021, when the coalition rallied communities and civil society organizations to urge the Inter-American Development Bank to abandon a proposed $43 million loan to Marfrig Global Foods, a Brazil-based beef giant. Within five months, the loan transaction was discontinued.
Throughout 2022, S3F focused on engaging the World Bank and successfully triggered a review of the International Finance Corporation's agricultural investments. In June 2023, the coalition partners released the Climate Misalignment Report, which revealed how MDB investments in industrial livestock directly conflict with their Paris Agreement commitments. The report urged financial institutions to exclude industrial livestock and feed operations from their Paris Alignment frameworks.
U.S. banking sector under spotlight 
This year, the S3F Coalition turned its attention to private financial institutions, particularly focusing on U.S. banks' contributions to the livestock sector.A 2024 study revealed that between 2016 and 2023, 58 U.S. banks provided $134 billion in lending and underwriting to meat, dairy, animal feed, food processing, and agri-commodity corporations. More than half of this financing came from just three major banks: Bank of America, Citigroup, and JPMorgan Chase.
The environmental impact of this financing is disproportionately high. While loans to these sectors account for just 0.25% of the banks’ total outstanding loans, they represent around 11% of the banks' financed emissions—a 44-fold difference.
Global Call to Action
On September 12, 2024, over 100 signatories—including leading environmental organizations and activists—issued an open letter to the private banking sector. The letter condemned the financial industry's role in driving climate change through the continued support of industrial livestock production. Signatories urged all financial institutions to take immediate and decisive action to halt their financing of this highly polluting sector.
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