Update: At the end of February, JPMorgan Chase became the second US bank to announce that it would not finance oil and gas extraction in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Read about it here. 

In December, Goldman Sachs became the first US bank to announce that it would no longer finance oil projects in the Arctic, citing concerns about how drilling would affect the Indigenous peoples of Alaska and endangered species and how it would contribute to the climate crisis. The bank's new lending policy is a milestone in the fight to preserve the 1.5-million-acre coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which Congress opened for drilling in 2017.

Goldman Sachs's announcement followed months of lobbying efforts led by the Gwich'in Steering Committee, the Sierra Club, and Rainforest Action Network. The coalition of environmental groups met with representatives from major US banks numerous times throughout 2019 to urge them to change their lending policies. Thirteen European and Australian banks have also made commitments not to finance drilling in the Arctic.

The new policy could be an indication that major US banks, which have been some of the top financiers of fossil fuel projects, are starting to heed calls from climate activists for policies to combat the climate crisis. "We are going to continue pushing," said Bernadette Demientieff, executive director of the Gwich'in Steering Committee. "Wells Fargo, Chase, Citibank, Ameris, and Morgan Stanley—hopefully they will take the challenge of making a commitment alongside Goldman Sachs not to fund any activity in the Arctic Refuge."

This article appeared in the March/April 2020 edition with the headline "Goldman Sachs Says No to Arctic Oil."