Wells Fargo committed to ruling out funding oil and gas drilling in the Arctic region, including the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, according to the company’s updated environmental and social risk management policy. The mega-bank is now the third in the United States to withdraw lending for drilling projects in the region following a years-long campaign by Indigenous groups and environmentalists pressuring Wells Fargo and other lending institutions to halt financing fossil fuel projects.

Wells Fargo is one of the largest bankers of fossil fuel projects in the world, second only JPMorgan Chase, according to a study by environmental organizations including the Rainforest Action Network, Sierra Club, Bank Track, and the Indigenous Environmental Network. Just days ago, JPMorgan Chase announced its own policy ruling out arctic drilling, and Goldman Sachs declared a similar policy late last year.

In addition to arctic drilling, the bank also committed to withdrawing lending from many coal-related enterprises and private prisons, stating the company does “not believe it is appropriate that we limit credit or financing to legally operating companies based solely on public opposition to that sector” but that “risk management is at the core of our business, and we look at the full spectrum of risks and various other factors when considering whether or not to finance any sector, company, or project-specific transaction. These include credit risk, market conditions, reputation risk, social and environmental considerations, and the potential volatility of policy and regulatory positions.” Such statements give key insight into the receptibility of large institutions’ to environmental movements and protests.

“For years, we have been speaking out about the need to keep drill rigs out of our sacred lands in the Arctic Refuge, and it’s amazing that a growing number of major banks are listening,” Gwich’in Steering Committee Executive Director Bernadette Demientieff said in a statement. “The Arctic Refuge is critical to our people’s food security and way of life. Our human rights will not be dismissed. The fight to protect this place is far from over, and we will continue to hold accountable any bank, oil company, or politician that seeks to benefit from its destruction.”

The Gwich’in people have been resisting drilling in their ancestral homelands and the coastal plains of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for decades. The Gwich’in call the coastal plain Iizhik Gwats’an Gwandaii Goodlit—the “Sacred Place Where Life Begins.” The Gwich’in were joined more recently by a coalition of environmental groups and activists. Together, they have been staging a variety of protests and campaigns to pressure big banks into withdrawing their financial support of these fossil fuel projects.

Photo courtesy of the Sierra Club

In the released policy update, Wells Fargo notes that the company “believes that climate change is one of the most urgent environmental and social issues of our time. Numerous scientific assessments including from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have consistently found that large reductions in carbon dioxide emissions are needed to prevent climate-related impacts, including risk to human life, livelihood and long-term viability of communities. We support the principles of the Paris Agreement, including its goal to keep warming below a two-degree scenario.”

While it is significant that the top funder of fracked oil and gas is openly acknowledging the climate catastrophe and publicly committing to the Paris Agreement, the statement rings hollow for many climate activists who note the bank has funded over $150 billion in fossil fuel projects between 2016 and 2018, according to the 2019 Banking on Climate Report, contributing to untold destruction to the environment, climate, and communities around the world.