PRIVATE EQUITY AND CLIMATE

Private equity firms are fueling the climate crisis with very little accountability. In the past decade, they have invested hundreds of billions of dollars into fracked gas, offshore drilling, LNG terminals, and pipelines.

The Problem

HEAVILY INVEST IN FOSSIL FUELS

The industry has invested over $1.1TN in energy assets since 2010.
Private equity firms own five-times more fossil-fuel power plants than wind and solar.
Firms cut costs by eliminating procedures and programs to reduce harm in the communities in which they operate, putting workers and people living nearby at constant risk of disaster.

More than 60 percent of the communities near private equity’s polluting facilities are made up primarily of people of color, exposing these neighborhoods to higher levels of dangerous air pollutants.
Private equity firms fund pipelines that threaten Indigenous communities and operate on unceded sovereign land.

HURT COMMUNITIES

In 2020, 7.5% of the power plants in the US were owned by private equity firms, but they were responsible for 14 percent of the emissions from the entire US power sector.
Private equity-owned power plants emit 200,749,403 mt of carbon dioxide each year. This is just less than the emissions from all of Spain and more than Argentina.

Contribute to Climate Change

More than half of the oil and gas companies that filed for bankruptcy in 2020 were owned by private equity firms.
Private equity-backed energy funds underperform when compared to standard benchmarks and lose money for investors.

create significant economic risk

PRIVATE EQUITY FIRMS

WHY IS PRIVATE EQUITY BUYING FOSSIL FUELS?

Because they can. Private equity firms operate just beyond the reach of many regulations and public disclosure requirements. They take advantage of the secrecy to buy fossil fuel assets from public companies that have been pressured by investors and consumers to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.

For asset managers, electric utilities, and oil and gas companies trying to cut their climate impacts by offloading polluting assets – private equity is often the only buyer in town. And, through financial manipulations, private equity firms continue to get investors for these purchases even though their fossil fuel funds underperform benchmarks.

Once they purchase the fossil fuel assets – private equity firms keep them running to squeeze out every last dollar, instead of responsibly decommissioning them to help fend off the worst impacts of climate change.

PRIVATE EQUITY’S FOSSIL FUEL PROJECTS ARE HURTING PEOPLE AND COMMUNITIES

With all we know about climate change and all we experience with extreme weather, droughts, and food shortages – private equity firms continue to invest in fossil fuel projects. These are some of the many communities around the world affected by private-equity owned fossil fuel projects.

Port Arthur LNG

(KKR)

KKR is helping fund the massive expansion of methane gas projects in the Gulf South. The firm owns about 45 percent of a new LNG project in Port Arthur, Texas, which faces strong opposition from Black and Latino residents who already suffer from lung and respiratory issues.

Coastal GasLink

(KKR)

KKR is a majority stakeholder in Canada’s Coastal GasLink Pipeline, a project on unceded Indigenous sovereign land. For years, the pipeline, which does not have consent from the Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs, has faced resistance. Since KKR took ownership, there has been excessive use of force against land defenders including militarized police raids. Wet’suwet’en members who live on the lands continue to face police harassment 8 to 10 times daily.

Carmichael Mine

(Apollo)

Apollo is financing the Adani Corporation’s plan to build a coal mine on Aboriginal land in Queensland, Australia. The traditional owners of the land, the Wangan and Jagalingou people, are fighting to stop this dangerous and controversial fossil-fuel project.

Sabine Pass LNG

(Brookfield)

Brookfield owns a 40 percent stake in Cheniere Energy, owner of Sabine Pass LNG in the Cameron Parish of Louisiana. The area is surrounded by power plants polluting the water, air, and land. Residents live in constant fear of fires and explosions and are fighting the project’s expansion.

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