Bank financing of fossil fuel and mining projects is “undermining” the recently signed Paris climate accord. This is according to “$horting the Climate: Fossil Fuel Finance Report 2016” issued by a quartet of environmental groups: Rainforest Action Network, Sierra Club, Banktrack and Oilchange International. Well, so what else is new? Somebody has to finance those big projects. Who else but financial institutions? Do we want to sound like Captain Renault in “Casablanca” shocked at gambling in Rick’s establishment? Now for the reaction. Those environmental groups have issued this report annually fingering banks that financed fossil fuel projects. As far as we can tell, the banks ignored these reports in the past. They certainly didn’t react that way this time. Several pledged to phase out loans to coal mining in general and to projects that removed mountain tops. One bank said it would no longer lend to new coal mining […]