Bank financing for the fossil fuel industry in the 134 countries of the Global South has reached an estimated $3.2tr since 2016, when the Paris Agreement on Climate Change entered into force, according to ActionAid. Bank financing to the largest industrial agriculture companies operating in the same area amounted to $370bn over the same period. The two industries are the largest global contributors to climate change.

The Global South includes Brazil, India, Indonesia and China, alongside countries with smaller economies such as Nigeria and Mexico.

These countries, already disproportionately affected by climate change, are playing host to an increasing number of fossil fuel and industrial agriculture developments such as coal mines, gas wells, oil pipelines, coal-fired power plants and monoculture plantations that require copious quantities of fossil fertilisers and pesticides.

In the report, How the Finance Flows: the banks fuelling the climate crisis...