JPMorgan Chase retook the title of top fossil-fuel financing bank in 2023, according to the latest Banking on Climate Chaos report, released Monday by the Rainforest Action Network.

The U.S.’s largest bank had topped the nonprofit’s ranking each year since 2016, except in 2022, when Royal Bank of Canada reigned. Last year’s report, published in April 2023, credited RBC with lending or underwriting $42.1 billion in fossil fuel-related debt and equity, ahead of JPMorgan’s $39.2 billion. 

This year’s report lists JPMorgan with $40.9 billion, though RAN’s methodology has changed, such that it reflects all banks that made financial contributions to a deal. Previously, the data was based on Bloomberg’s league credit accounting system, which only credited the banks in leading roles.

By that measure, RBC fell to seventh in 2023 with $28.2 billion.

Japanese bank Mizuho took second place, with $37.0 billion, according to RAN’s figures. Bank of America ranked third, with $33.7 billion. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group was fourth, at $33.2 billion. Wells Fargo ranked fifth, with $30.4 billion — just ahead of Citi, sixth, at $30.2 billion.

Another Japanese giant Sumitomo Mitsui, ranked eighth, with $26.8 billion. Barclays and Scotiabank rounded out the top 10, with $24.2 billion and $24.0 billion, respectively.

Overall, the world’s 60 largest banks have spent more than $6.9 trillion on fossil-fuel financing since the Paris Climate Accords were signed in 2016, RAN wrote. 

That total includes $705 billion in fossil fuel financing last year — where global temperature increases spiked above the 1.5°C threshold (surface temperature today compared with pre-industrial time) for the first time ever. U.S. based banks accounting for 30% of that financing, RAN found. 

“Major banks squandered yet another year to take decisive and ambitious action,” wrote Adele Shraiman, a co-author of the report and a senior strategist for the Sierra Club’s Fossil-Free Finance campaign.

“As the crisis worsens, big U.S. banks have stalled on making meaningful progress toward their own net-zero commitments by failing to set sufficient near-term emissions reduction targets and lay out credible plans for restricting financing for polluting companies,” Shraiman said in a press release.

April Merleaux, another co-author and RAN’s research and policy manager, said in a release that the new methodology revealed “previously unreported details” on banks’ fossil fuel support.

“Banks that profit from climate chaos invent new greenwash every year, but we have the receipts that show how much money they put into fossil fuels,” Merleaux said. “And bank financing for fossil fuels is not declining nearly fast enough.

The six largest U.S. banks — JPMorgan, Bank of America, Citi, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley — account for more than $1.8 trillion in fossil fuel financing from 2016 to 2023, or more than a quarter of the global total. 

In aggregate, JPMorgan is the leading fossil fuel financier since 2016, with more than $430.9 billion tallied since the Paris Agreement. Citi and Bank of America round out the top three, having spent $396.3 billion and $331.2 billion, respectively. JPMorgan and Citi announced this year they would disclose the ratio of fossil fuel to clean energies financed, finding an agreement with the New York City comptroller’s office on a shareholder proposal ahead of their annual meetings.

Despite banks’ long-term commitment to reaching net zero, few have looked to reach that pathway by strengthening exclusions, RAN’s report found. Nine of the 60 banks included in the report strengthened fossil fuel exclusion policies last year, RAN found. However, many of the banks with targets have policy gaps, or “a target without a credible pathway to implementation,” the nonprofit found.

“The widest policy gap is the one between net-zero-by-2050 targets, and the banks’ current fossil fuel finance decisions, which do not reflect the urgent need to stop fossil fuel expansion,” the report said.

More than half of the fossil fuel financing in 2023 was spent funding fossil fuel expansion, with banks commissioning $347 billion in expansion funding last year. Ultimately, the funding still represented a decrease in expansion funding from 2022, when banks spent $385 billion.

Financing also decreased for coal-fired power, gas-fired power and tar sands last year, as well as funding for oil from fracking, obtained through ultra-deepwater methods, from the Arctic and from the Amazon. However, funding for liquefied natural gas, coal mining and metallurgical coal increased last year.

“The science is clear: to tackle today's climate crisis we must hold Big Oil accountable for its role in the climate crisis,” Rep. Ro Khanna, D-CA, said in a release. “Unfortunately, this report shows that banks are continuing to finance projects that will increase emissions, despite their public climate commitments.”