Welcome back: The world's banks increased their financing of the fossil-fuel industry last year, boosting it by more than a fifth to nearly $900 billion and raising questions about the sector’s commitment to climate goals.  

A report from climate advocacy groups including including the Rainforest Action Network and the Sierra Club said that the increase was due in part to a retreat from climate action by banks, with many watering down existing exclusion policies and delaying decarbonization targets. 

Some big U.S. banks have raised eyebrows in recent months by dropping out of the Net-Zero Banking Alliance, an organization sponsored by the United Nations that sought to keep the industry on track to reach net-zero by 2050. The moves, made around the time President Trump took office, followed political pressure on some lenders related to accusations of anticompetitive collusion that hampered fossil-fuel funding.

The report, which since 2016 has tracked $7.9 trillion in fossil-fuel financing, draws on data from the world’s 65 largest banks by asset size and their financing activities to around 2,730 companies that are active across the fossil-fuel life cycle, from exploration to combustion. 

Read on for more on this story and other sustainability news.

Global banks significantly increased their financing for coal, oil and gas projects last year, according to a report by climate advocacy groups, marking a reversal at a time when lenders are backtracking on climate pledges, Elena Vardon writes for WSJ Pro Sustainable Business.

The world’s largest lenders committed $869.4 billion to companies conducting business in fossil fuels in 2024, according to the “Banking on Climate Chaos” report. This was 23% higher than the previous year and is equivalent to the gross domestic product of Switzerland. The report, which is in its 16th edition, is coauthored by a group of nonprofit organizations including the Rainforest Action Network and the Sierra Club.

U.S. lenders continue to dominate as the largest financiers: JPMorgan Chase led the pack providing $53.5 billion in funding last year, and was followed by Bank of America with $46.0 billion and Citigroup with $44.7 billion.

JPMorgan Chase said that it believes that its data reflects its activities more comprehensively and accurately than estimates by third parties, according to a spokesperson. A Citigroup spokesperson said that its “approach reflects the need to transition while also continuing to meet global needs for energy security.” Bank of America didn't respond to a request for comment.

• Banks Wrangle With Shareholders Over Emissions Claims
• Big Banks Flee Climate Coalition Formed to Reduce Carbon Emissions
• Shareholders Call on HSBC to Reaffirm Net-Zero Pledge

Aerospace startup Electra is looking to deliver a hybrid-electric plane that can take off and land—quickly and quietly—on a surface no bigger than a soccer field, the WSJ's Sharon Terlep writes.

The company is trying something relatively novel for hybrid planes, which run on a combination of jet fuel and electric power. The nine-seat EL9 uses eight propellers to blow air over the wings, re-creating the lift a plane gets from speeding down a runway. Known as “blown lift,” this allows the plane to take off from a shorter runway. Where a typical small plane must hit speeds of at least 70 knots, or around 80 miles an hour, to become airborne and requires a runway of at least 1,500 feet, Electra’s can take off at half that speed and lift off after rolling 150 feet on a 300-foot runway.

Backed by Lockheed Martin, the five-year-old Virginia-based startup aims to have the EL9 in the skies by 2029. Electra has been flying a two-passenger prototype for months. The plane would have a list price around $10 million but, with typical industry discounts, could sell for about half the cost, according to people familiar with the pricing. The company says the cost to buy and operate the plane would be roughly one-third that of a helicopter.

• JetZero to Start Building Blended Wing Planes in North Carolina
• United Bets on Photosynthesis, Limestone to Fuel Net-Zero Flight Path
• Airbus Promised a Green Aircraft. That Bet Is Now Unraveling.

Just three years ago, Bowling Green, Ky., was celebrating the largest industrial investment ever made in the city, a new sprawling electric-vehicle battery factory that would create 2,000 jobs. Today, the building is there. The jobs aren’t, the WSJ's Christopher Otts writes.

The Chinese-owned company behind the factory quietly stopped working on the $2 billion plant last September, according to current and former employees. Now there is just a massive metal shell of a building with no interior equipment.

Automotive Energy Supply Corp., or AESC, also paused construction earlier this month on a similar $1.6 billion plant in South Carolina. A third plant in Tennessee designed to supply an electric-vehicle factory is now producing industrial energy storage batteries instead.

AESC’s struggles illustrate the ripple effect that slack EV demand and President Trump’s trade war are having throughout the auto industry. Car companies are pulling back on EV investments and costs are rising as a result of tariffs, hurting the financial case for many battery projects.

• U.S. Battery Rush Spurs $1.4 Billion Sodium-Ion Plant in North Carolina
• Is Europe’s Biggest Battery Maker About to Run Out of Juice?
• U.S. Battery Producer Enticed to Set Up Shop in the EU

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• Meta signs deal to power data centers with geothermal. (ESG Today)
   
• Elon Musk’s AI company faces lawsuit over gas-burning turbines. (NYT)
   
• Kraft Heinz is ditching artificial dyes. (WSJ)
   
• General Mills to remove artificial colors from its U.S. foods. (Reuters)
   
• Why the world cannot quit coal. (FT)
   
• Industry eyes carbon credit gold in mining waste. (Trellis)
   
• America’s new language of climate denial. (Bloomberg)
   
• Removal of hundreds of illegal cattle in the Amazon sparks protests. (AP)
   
• Spain's government blames huge blackout on grid regulator. (BBC)

WSJ Pro Sustainable Business gives you an inside look at how companies are tackling sustainability. Send comments to bureau chief Perry Cleveland-Peck at perry.cleveland-peck@wsj.com and reporters Clara Hudson at clara.hudson@wsj.com and Yusuf Khan at yusuf.khan@wsj.com. Follow us on LinkedIn at wsjperry, clara-hudson and yusuf_khan.