ANZ and Westpac are streaking ahead of the other big banks as go-to financiers for fossil fuel companies, a report has found.
More than 70 per cent of fossil fuel projects funded since 2022 were bankrolled by the two highlighted in the report by clean energy finance advocacy group Market Forces, who labelled ANZ and Westpac’s current climate policies “greenwashing”.
In the decade since the Paris Agreement was signed, the report found the big four banks have provided $43.4 billion to coal, oil and gas companies but the spending is not an even spread.
Competitors Commonwealth Bank and NAB have dramatically wound back their funding for big polluters since 2022, with Commbank dropping from second place in 2021 to a distant fourth today.
“Australia’s big banks must end all finance for companies without credible plans for the critical shift to a more secure economy and a liveable climate,” said the group’s head of research, Kyle Robertson.
“ANZ and Westpac are greenwashing by cutting deals with some of the biggest coal, oil and gas companies in the world.”
The report found that $15.9 billion has been provided by ANZ alone in the past decade, with nearly $6 billion spent since 2022 leaving the bank well clear at the top of the report’s fossil fuel funding league table.
Westpac took second place with $3.8 billion and both banks took part in a $12.9 billion loan to petroleum giant BP.
Transitioning their lending portfolio to net-zero financed emissions in line with Paris was the “ambition” of ANZ, the company said.
“ANZ is a significant lender to the energy sector, which is the most carbon intensive part of the global economy,” an ANZ spokesman said.
Westpac was contacted for comment.
Emissions have continued to increase globally since the 2015 Paris Agreement, the UN says, with fossil fuel production a crucial driver of the potential of 3C of warming in the 21st century.
On October 1, all big four banks committed to select fossil fuel clients on the condition they submitted Climate Transition Plans compliant with the Paris Agreement.
But Market Forces found the actions of Commbank and NAB vastly outperformed their competitors in the lead-up to the October deadline, with CBA dropping lending exposure for oil and gas by 75 per cent in the last three years.
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