Banks pumped more than $150bn in to companies running ‘carbon bomb’ projects in 2022

Exclusive: Projects that risk 1.5C heating target operated by companies receiving financing from European, Chinese and US banks

Banks pumped more than $150bn last year into companies whose giant carbon bomb" projects could destroy the last chance of stopping the planet heating to dangerous levels, the Guardian can reveal.

The carbon bombs - 425 extraction projects that can each pump more than one gigaton of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere - cumulatively hold enough coal, oil and gas to burn through the rapidly dwindling carbon budget four times over. Between 2016 and 2022, banks mainly in the US, China and Europe gave $1.8tn in financing to the companies running them, new research shows.