Partner Letter to MIGA: Barco Santander, Spain (Spring 2024)

In this letter of concern from Spring 2024, Sinergia Animal and the International Accountability Project criticize the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency’s (MIGA) proposed guarantee to Barco Santander. Their focus is on the bank’s ties to factory farming, as Santander is the largest financier of JBS– a meatpacker linked to 1.7 million hectares of deforestation. JBS also has a record of human rights violations and corruption. In 2021, its emissions exceeded Spain’s annual emissions.

Santander’s green bonds have funded farmers involved in deforestation and rights abuses. The bank recently coordinated a green bond for Uisa, an ethanol producer with a history of environmental fines and toxic waste spills in Indigenous territories.

The organizations emphasize that funding Santander without addressing these issues risks worsening environmental and social harm, and urge MIGA to reconsider the proposal.

You can read the full letter at the link below.