Australia’s biggest banks pledge clean energy finance

Two of the biggest banks in Australia announced new initiatives on Thursday to support the transition to a low-carbon economy and the move could limit efforts to finance the country’s fossil fuel industry.

In a statement, the National Australia Bank pledged AUS$18 billion (£8.4 billion) up to 2022 to finance renewable energy projects including low-carbon property and transport.

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia, the second biggest lender in the country, announced that it will consider environment risks in loan and credit approvals and will strengthen due diligence in “high-impact” sectors.

CBA’s chief executive officer Ian Narev said: “We need to be cognisant of the long-term impact our business has on the economies and communities in which we operate… An important part of that is rigorously and consistently examining our lending and investment decisions to understand and assess environmental and social impacts.”

In October this year, ANZ Banking Group announced plans to lend at least AUS$10 billion by 2020 to climate projects that will reduce greenhouse gases, ending support for new coal-fired power plants that don’t use advanced emissions reduction technology.

Australia is one of the world’s largest carbon emitters per capita due to a reliance on coal-fired power plants and the country is also the world’s largest exporter of coal.