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In an age of greenwashing and disingenuous sustainability marketing, which banks are genuinely helping out against climate change and which are still funding fossil fuels?
Well, we’re finally here – COP26 is underway in Glasgow as world leaders discuss climate change initiatives and pledge big money to curb emissions over the next ten years.
The UK government has announced today that hundreds of the world’s biggest banks and pension funds will be getting involved, with assets worth over $130 trillion USD between 450 institutions.
While this is good news and a step in the right direction, experts have been quick to note that banks have been given no cap or restrictions on pumping money into fossil fuels, which they continue to do on a huge scale. Since 2015, over $3.8 trillion USD has been given to the coal, oil, and gas industries by sixty of the world’s biggest banks.
If you’re surprised by those numbers then you’ve likely been duped by greenwashing campaigns that emphasise ‘sustainability’ initiatives while omitting any information on fossil fuel funding. Shell is a company that’s especially guilty of this with its recent ‘clean driving’ campaigns, but such tactics to dupe consumers cross over to banks as well.
Who are the big offenders?
Let’s start locally in the UK, since COP26 is taking place in Glasgow. The UK’s five biggest banks, including Barclays, HSBC, NatWest, Lloyds Banking Group, and Standard Chartered, invested close to £40.4 billion into coal between 2018 and 2020 alone.
Barclays made up over half of that total, and has pumped more than £145 billion into companies that have plans to expand their use of fossil fuels since 2015.
HSBC, meanwhile, put nearly £11 billion into coal companies between 2018 and 2020, with direct investment in Bangladesh’s coal infrastructure. Since 2015 it has spent $110 billion USD on fossil fuels. To put the greenwashing problem into perspective, here is HSBC’s 2021 advert for ‘climate change doesn’t do borders’ – neither does coal expansion, apparently.
