⁍ Campaigners called on Wednesday for global banks to stop financing industrial activities driving animal and plant species toward extinction.

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⁍ A report ranked 50 lenders involved in sectors that pose the greatest threat to wildlife.

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⁍ The report found that in 2019, the 50 banks provided loans and underwriting of more than $2.6 trillion to sectors such as industrial farming and fishing.

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– Environmentalists say it’s time for the world’s major banks to “step up their game” and stop lending money to causes that are destroying the planet’s wildlife. A report published Wednesday by Portfolio.earth, a network of researchers, looked at 50 of the world’s biggest lenders and found that they provided more than $2.6 trillion in loans and underwriting to sectors including fossil fuels, industrial farming, and infrastructure last year, causing more than a million species to be threatened with extinction, the Guardian reports. “Banks are starting to realize that if they invest in sectors that cause climate change, that will hurt their returns,” Liz Gallagher, director of Portfolio.earth, tells Reuters. “Banks need to understand that the same holds true for destroying biodiversity.” The report found that none of the banks had systems in place to limit the impact of their loans on animal and plant life that supports human well-being. “Imagine a world in which projects can only raise capital when they have demonstrated that they will contribute meaningfully and positively to restoring the planet’s bounty and a safe climate for all? That’s the future this report envisions and builds toward,” Kai Chan, an environmental scientist at the University of British Columbia, tells Reuters. Bank of America and Citigroup, identified among the 10 biggest lenders, declined to comment, referring Reuters to existing sustainability pledges. BNP Paribas, also ranked highly, said the authors had not contacted it or shared their methodology so it could not comment.