Defund and divest: Banks, investors, and pension funds urged to stop bankrolling meat and dairy

Cecilia Keating
clock • 3 min read

‘Big Livestock’ is just as damaging to the planet as the fossil fuel industry, campaigners warn, yet UK banks continue to be among the sector's largest creditors, pouring tens of billions into carbon-intensive companies fuelling deforestation

Investment firms, banks, and pension funds have spent hundreds of billions of dollars supporting "destructive" global meat and dairy companies that are failing to take adequate action on carbon emissions...

To continue reading this article...

Join BusinessGreen

In just a few clicks you can start your free BusinessGreen Lite membership for 12 months, providing you access to:

  • Three complimentary articles per month covering the latest real-time news, analysis, and opinion from Europe’s leading source of information on the Green economy and business
  • Receive important and breaking news stories via our daily news alert
  • Our weekly newsletter with the best of the week’s green business news and analysis

Join now

 

Already a BusinessGreen member?

Login

More on Investment

'Investors are not abandoning sustainability': Three quarters of retail investors expect sustainability to inform decisions

'Investors are not abandoning sustainability': Three quarters of retail investors expect sustainability to inform decisions

Major new report from Aberdeen Investments insists 'sustainable investing is evolving, not retreating'

James Murray
clock 13 October 2026 • 4 min read
Generation gap in ESG investing widens as performance worries increase

Generation gap in ESG investing widens as performance worries increase

Association of Investment Companies survey reveals growing hostility to ESG investing, especially among older investors, which is being fuelled by concerns over returns and confusion over what the term means

Michael Nelson, Investment Week
clock 13 October 2026 • 2 min read
SDCL's Jonathan Maxwell: 'The skills we need are mostly not green at all'

SDCL's Jonathan Maxwell: 'The skills we need are mostly not green at all'

Jonathan Maxwell explains why permission, not capital, is the 'constraint that bites', and why the industries making the fastest progress are the ones with the biggest energy bills

Stuart Stone
clock 13 October 2026 • 9 min read