Deaths, Asthma, Climate Pollution Linked to Citi's Funding of Gas Terminals, New Stand.earth Report Shows

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Sep 18, 2024, 05:00 ET

$36 Million in Health Impacts Suffered by Texas & Louisiana Communities

NEW YORK, Sept. 18, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The lives and health of families in Texas and Louisiana are being directly impacted by Citi's funding of nearby liquified methane gas projects (LNG), a new report released today shows. The report, Citi: Funding Fossil-Fueled Environmental Racism in the Gulf South, quantifies the projected health impacts the facilities' permitted air pollution could have on the region through data analysis and community stories.

"I have witnessed firsthand the devastating impacts of environmental racism," said Roishetta Ozane, Co-Director of the Gulf South Fossil Finance Hub said. "When Citi and other banks fund fossil fuels, they are complicit in the chronic health conditions that stem from these facilities' pollution. Citi must prioritize the wellbeing of marginalized communities and stop funding the fossil fuel industry's injustice."

The report undermines Citi's claims of advancing racial equity and climate action. The bank is the biggest global funder of fossil fuel expansion since 2016, financing projects and companies in communities of color that cause dangerous health impacts. The report concludes that Citi is perpetuating environmental racism.

"As a lifelong Port Arthurian, I've seen this community go from life to death due to Citi's destruction!" Reginald Trainer, with the Port Arthur Community Action Network said. "Race plays a big part of that. I believe it and I can see it. Citi is responsible for the part it's played in harming our community."

The dataset estimates the real-world impacts related to Citi's funding of LNG terminals that are operating and under construction in low-income communities of color in Texas and Louisiana. By providing at least $1.6 billion in direct financing to the four LNG export terminals, this analysis estimates Citi could be attributed with the following annual impacts related to the facilities' permitted air pollution:

2.3 premature deaths
$36 million in health costs
10 cases of childhood asthma onset
26 MMT CO2e/yr

The analysis finds that, over 35 years, Citi could be responsible for as many as 80.5 premature deaths related to the air pollution from these projects.

"Ongoing fossil fuel extraction continues to destroy Indigenous lands all over the Global South and in communities of color here in Texas and Louisiana. CitiBank doesn't care how many communities, sacred sites, or ecosystems they destroy as long as they make their money," Dr. Christopher Basaldú of the Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe said.

In addition to the data, the report focuses on three communities in the Gulf South that are fighting Citi's financing of projects in their communities. These case studies illustrate the human cost of living near polluting facilities and the courage of community leaders who stand up to corporations and their financial backers.

"Citi's lack of regard for people, especially Black Americans, as they continue to finance petrochemicals in these communities just emphasizes their environmentally racist tendencies," Shamell Lavigne, Chief Operating Officer of RISE St. James said. "St. James Parish has been a safe haven for me, my family and our community for generations. But Citi continues to enable companies like Formosa Plastics to pollute and harm us without accountability."

Link to view media briefing of report with frontline speakers

SOURCE Stand.earth