Frankfurt, Germany – Yesterday police raided the offices of Deutsche Bank and its investment subsidiary DWS due to allegations of Greenwashing, the bank is accused of inflating the green credentials of its financial products. Today, Asoka Woehrmann, the bank’s Chief Executive Officer at DWS, was replaced. These controversies cast serious doubts over the bank’s climate policies. On the 19th of May climate justice activists from the Koala Kollektiv staged a protest outside Deutsche Bank’s HQ to shine a spotlight on the bank’s Greenwashing and demand the bank ends its financing of destructive fossil fuel companies like TOTAL.
Photographs of Greenwashing action at Deutsche Bank HQ (credit @koalakollektiv)
Kate Cahoon, senior Germany campaigner at 350.org said:
“The allegations that an investment subsidiary of Deutsche Bank, DWS, has mislead investors about supposedly green investments does not come as a surprise as Deutsche Bank has a terrible record of financing some of the dirtiest fossil fuel companies and projects on the planet.
This is clearly another example of a major bank telling us they take the climate crisis seriously but doing the exact opposite, with devastating consequences for the climate and people around the world. Greenwashing scandals like this make it increasingly clear that the sector cannot be relied on to self-govern itself, we need strong regulations to ensure the banking sector isn’t fuelling the climate crisis – central banks and governments need to step in”.
Kerstin Kress, activist at the climate justice group KoalaKollektiv, said:
“Almost half of all people are already threatened by the climate crisis. Deutsche Bank and it’s subsidiary DWS, however, are not showing interest in people’s lives but rather in short-term profits. By financing devastating fossil fuel industries Deutsche Bank is responsible for deaths through drought, flooding, wildfires and air pollution. We demand that Deutsche Bank stops their flagrant greenwashing and starts a real green transition. The European Central Bank and policy-makers must deliver strong regulation to prevent private banks from destroying our lives and livelihoods.”
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Contact: Mark Raven
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