By Cameron Conant, Communications Officer, Operation Noah  

Despite the huge increase in global investment in renewable energy, nearly every major fossil fuel company is continuing to explore for new oil and gas and relying on banks to finance their destructive, unsustainable plans. From 2016 to 2023, banks around the world pumped over $6.9 trillion into fossil fuels; in 2023, Barclays provided $24.2 billion and HSBC $12.9 billion. 

With this in mind, perhaps, like me, you’ve been convinced for some time now that you need to switch banks, yet have lingering concerns about how complex it will be to switch and how long it will take. But I’d like to assure you that it is almost certainly easier than you think! 

Having finally made the switch this year – in my case, I stopped banking with HSBC, which continues to fund planet-heating fossil fuels, and moved my money to Nationwide, which doesn’t – I found the process to be surprisingly easy, with Nationwide liaising with HSBC to switch my money over on a particular day, something which happened a few weeks after opening my Nationwide current account (Nationwide is an eco-friendly option and one of 50 UK banks and building societies signed up to the Current Account Switch Service, which makes switching easy). 

Well before the switch happened, I received my new bank card and pin in the post. Around that same time, I also downloaded my new banking app to my phone. When the switch finally happened, all of my money and direct debits automatically moved over to my new account, and even people I had paid electronically via HSBC were now listed in my new mobile banking app. Furthermore, in the weeks following my switch, anyone who tried to pay me electronically using my old account details had their payment automatically redirected to my new account. 

The most difficult part of the whole process – which wasn’t so difficult at all – was taking the crucial first step of going into my local Nationwide branch (I hadn’t made an appointment, just walked in). Opening a current account involved showing my ID, answering a few questions and completing an online application in the bank. The whole process took about an hour. 

This Lent, if you have an account with a bank that funds fossil fuels – check here to see if your bank is funding fossil fuels, as well as learn about ethical banking alternatives – can I encourage you to switch to a fossil-free bank? 

Operation Noah has partnered with JustMoney Movement, Laudato Si’ Movement and Just Love on the Big Bank Switch campaign, which encourages individual Christians to pledge to switch to an ethical bank, then to make the switch, and finally to tell their old fossil fuel-funding bank why they decided to leave. We also have a helpful FAQs section on switching banks. 

Many Christian charities and institutions, including cathedrals and parish churches, have also made the switch to an ethical bank and many others are now in the process of considering it. This, combined with individual Christians switching, has the potential to pressure banks and financial institutions to stop funding fossil fuels. 

When we understand that the climate crisis is as much a financial problem as it is a moral and technological one, we can begin to target the financial institutions and mechanisms – including banks, insurance companies and pensions – that prop up the fossil fuel industry, which continues to expand despite dire scientific warnings.