The chief executive of banking giant Barclays says it is unrealistic for activists and investors to call for banks to stop lending to the oil and gas industry.
Barclays Chief Executive CS Venkatakrishnan said banks “cannot completely stop” lending to the oil and gas sector. Bloomberg At the Bloomberg Sustainable Finance Forum in London on Tuesday.
Environmentalists and shareholder activists are calling for an end to coal, oil and gas financing, accusing banks that back fossil fuel projects of financing climate destruction.
last month, report According to reports from activists and campaigning groups, banks have lent $6.9 trillion to fossil fuels since the Paris Agreement was signed in 2015, with $705 billion due to be provided in 2023 alone.
According to the 15th annual Banking on Climate Chaos (BOCC), JPMorgan Chase is the world’s top fossil fuel lender, committing $40.8 billion to fossil fuel companies in 2023. JPMorgan also tops lending since the 2015 Paris Agreement, followed by Citigroup and Bank of America.
According to the report, Barclays has lent $235.2 billion to the fossil fuel industry since 2015, making it the eighth largest lender by volume and Europe’s largest lender to the industry.
Barclays joined other major European banks earlier this year in announcing it would stop financing fossil fuel expansion and end direct financing for new oil and gas projects.
Europe’s largest lender to fossil fuel projects has committed to limiting its lending to oil and gas, including direct financing for new projects, a move welcomed by environmental groups. The bank will also task its energy sector clients with 2030 methane reduction targets, a commitment to end all routine and non-essential emissions and combustion by 2030, and scope 1 and 2 targets in line with near-term net-zero by January 2026.
But activists say Barclays could have gone further with its commitments and that the British bank’s announcement will put pressure on US banks JPMorgan, Bank of America and Citi, which are the biggest financiers to the fossil fuel industry.
Article by Charles Kennedy of Oilprice.com
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