UBS

UBS plays a key role in the destruction of global biodiversity by financing extractive industries responsible for deforestation, pollution, and violations of Indigenous peoples’ and local communities rights. Ranked among the worst international banks for investments in fossil fuels, UBS has injected more than $210 billion into this sector since the Paris Agreement, between 2016 and 2023 (1).

Fossil fuel expansion

In a recent report on “Swiss finance complicity in fossil fuel expansion”, we provide specific financial data on UBS and other Swiss institutions (banking and asset management), as well as an analysis on their fossil fuel policies, especially in expansion. We show that they are still channelling billions of dollars to companies developing new coal, oil and gas supply projects, while research from both the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the International Energy Agency (IEA) show that there is no room for new coal, oil and gas supply projects if we are to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees (2).

UBS, with Credit Suisse enter the top 20 of biggest banks and top 10 of largest asset managers. By buying Credit Suisse, UBS took over US$6 billion of banking deals, including those with Qatar Energy and ConocoPhillips. Through this transaction, which also includes the asset management arm of Credit Suisse, UBS’s exposure to fossil fuel developers also increased by more than US$8 billion (2,3). The report shows that between April 2021 to August 2022 alone, UBS and Credit Suisse provided at least $8 billion in loans and underwriting to companies developing new projects in the coal sector ($1 billion) and oil and gas extraction, including new gas projects ($7 billion) (2).

UBS has a coal policy based on the relative coal exposure of companies, which does not cover the biggest coal companies with coal expansion plans, such as Glencore. They have no coal phase out date, while different scenarios converge to stress that all coal assets must be closed by 2030 in European and OECD countries. They have not made any commitment towards exclusion of companies involved in oil and gas expansion, and they send mixed signals by their voting practices (2). 

Despite its sustainable policy, UBS continues to financially support companies that having no intention of transitioning and continuing to expand new oil and gas projects like ExxonMobil, Chevron, TotalEnergies, and Shell totalling a $20.4 billion investment in oil and gas expansion over 2021-2024 (2, 4).

UBS is the 7th biggest bank with direct involvement in oil and gas extraction in the Amazon biome in 2023, without respecting the exclusion that Credit Suisse announced in January 2021, despite its engagement to keep the best out of Credit Suisse.

Deforestation

UBS is amongst the largest 15 forest-risk investors in South America in
2024, with $307M (major sectors being beef, pulp and paper, and soy)
(5), while the Amazon rainforest is a “tipping point”, which degradation
would have critical implications for climate change (6). 

UBS and Banco do Brazil set up “UBS BB”, helping Brazilian companies such as BrasilAgro, JBS and Marfrig, raising capital, marketed as
“green bonds” (7). These companies are responsible for environmental degradation, illegal and largescale deforestation, land grabbing, and slave labour. In May 2024, Brazil’s Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office recommended Banco do Brazil stop funding the violation of indigenous territories and conservation areas (5).

“Sustainable funds”

UBS renamed 50% of its “sustainability funds” after a new EU directive has set climate targets for these funds, while still selling the same products as “sustainable” in Switzerland. Swiss rules lag behind: no binding definitions
of what is “sustainable”, which FINMA warns fuels greenwashing (8). 73% of UBS “green” funds still invest in fossil fuel companies (9). No engagement practices toward fossil fuel companies: 88% of UBS Asset Management’s votes at 2024 annual general meetings supported the management of fossil fuel developers. Through these voting practices, UBS Asset Management unconditionally approves the fossil fuel expansion plans of these companies and disregards that they are not aligned with climate science (10).