28/11/2024
Action at ING Private Banking & Wealth Management with the demand: ING, stop fossil financing
Today, during the opening of the Amsterdam Light Festival, on November 28 at 7 p.m., Extinction Rebellion will add an exclusive work of art to the route, near the ING Private Banking & Wealth Management office. The artwork depicts one crime scene and is an indictment of ING’s fossil policy, which results in many thousands of deaths. About twenty rebels float like corpses in the water. Actress Katja Herbers gives a speech and there is musical accompaniment. Extinction Rebellion demands an immediate end to ING’s financing and services to the fossil industry. The action lasts about an hour.
Spokesperson Rozemarijn van ‘t Einde: “With this action we shine a light on ING’s fossil financing policy: billions of euros go to the fossil industry every year. The bank is therefore choosing to make the climate and ecological crisis increasingly worse. Millions of people are affected by climate disasters, in many thousands of cases fatally affected. Entire ecosystems are destroyed. ING puts the wealth of a few above the lives and health of ordinary people worldwide and all other life on earth. As long as ING does not stop fossil financing, we will continue to campaign. It is time for climate justice.”
ING Private Banking & Wealth Management
The location of the action during the Amsterdam Light Festival was not chosen by chance. The blockade in the shape of a crime scene, in black and neon colors, surrounded by twenty concerned citizens floating like corpses in the water, has been set up in front of the office of ING Private Banking & Wealth Management. They represent global victims of ING’s fossil policy. These include people from Valencia, Palestine and Mexico, among others. In Mexico, 5 climate activists were murdered by an ING-funded mining company.
Only the very rich bank at ING Private Banking & Wealth Management. ING could use this abundance to finance purely sustainable companies and projects. Instead, the major polluter pumps billions of euros into the fossil industry every year. ING is therefore partly responsible for climate disasters and is responsible for the deaths of many thousands, the forced flight of millions and the destruction of ecosystems.
Nearer to thee
Katja Herbers gives a speech and as part of the artwork a choir sings and wind instruments play. The choir and wind section stand in front of the ING office with a banner behind them that reads:
“With its fossil fuel policy, ING chooses death and destruction
over life, choosing the wealth of the few over the health of
the earth. ING, stop killing, stop financing fossil fuel.”
One of the pieces sung is “Nearer to thee” which, according to tradition, was the last played during the sinking of the Titanic. This symbolizes ING’s fossil financing policy, the major polluter closes its eyes to the impending death of countless people, animals and plants. Furthermore, pieces by Dowland and Brahms are performed.
Wrong side of history
ING is on the wrong side of history and persists in that position. The action during Amsterdam Light Festival takes place five days after the COP29 climate agreement in Baku. Countries most affected by the climate and ecological crisis, such as the poorest countries and island states, need €1,300 billion annually to protect themselves against the effects of the climate and ecological crisis. From 2035 onwards they will receive a measly 300 billion euros annually.[1] ING knows full well how serious the situation is, no one worldwide can get out of it without fooling themselves. Yet the major polluter continues to finance the fossil industry with billions every year. ING is a bank with blood attached to it.
