Who finances (and who doesn’t) coal. The report cards of the banks according to environmentalists
Only 16 financial institutions – including Italy's Unicredit – have a solid policy of phasing out coal from credit financing. Coal Policy Tool analysis
Coal is increasingly in the crosshairs of environmentalists and beyond: in recent years, funds and financial institutions have also begun to withdraw from investments in the sector. According to the Coal Policy Tool's analysis, only 16 financial institutions – including industry giants such as AXA, Crédit Agricole / Amundi, Crédit Mutuel and Italy's Unicredit – have a robust policy of phasing out coal from credit financing. Most other banks still remain too weak to prevent further growth in the sector.
UNICREDIT THE FIRST NON-FRENCH FINANCIAL INSTITUTION TO ADOPT A COAL POLICY
In Italy, the leading position belongs to Unicredit: the banking group led by the CEO Jean-Pierre Mustier has recently decided to adopt a policy that will gradually bring to zero, by 2028, any financing for projects and companies involved in the business coal.
Unicredit recently published a policy explaining how the bank intends to meet its commitment to exit the coal sector by 2028, as announced in August 2020. According to the Coal Policy Tool , the policy provides for substantial exclusion and commitment criteria which will allow the Italian bank to effectively cut all services for the expansion of the coal sector and to gradually eliminate its exposure to bring it to zero by 2028.
WHAT IS THE COAL POLICY TOOL
The "Coal Policy Tool" is an online tool launched with Reclaim Finance, Re: Common and 24 other international NGOs including Greenpeace that allows you to identify, evaluate and compare the policies adopted by financial institutions around the world to limit or end their financial services for the coal sector. The tool, which will be updated in real time, covers 214 financial institutions in 30 countries, from Australia to the United States, naturally also passing through Italy.
HOW UNICREDIT IS MOVING
Unicredit is not only ending all funding dedicated to new and existing projects in the coal sector but is also excluding companies that have assets or links in the sector. Similarly to Natixis, UniCredit excludes all companies that generate more than 25% of their revenues from coal.
Unicredit requires all coal companies to adopt a plan for the phasing out of the coal sector by the end of 2021. The Italian bank will therefore exclude companies that do not adopt this plan.
GENERALI AND INTESA SANPAOLO STILL TOO MUCH LINKED TO COAL
As for other Italian institutes, "Generali continues to be strongly linked to the Czech and Polish coal of the CEZ and PGE companies, whose power plants and mines are estimated to cause over 1,800 premature deaths in Europe each year and an annual health cost of 5, 3 billion euros, despite the Trieste company declaring that it cares about the climate emergency and the health of citizens – writes Greenpeace -. Finally, the institution of greatest concern is Intesa Sanpaolo. Indeed, the bank was the last to adopt a policy aimed at progressively excluding financial support for the coal sector, with a belated move that lacks ambition and credibility. And it will even continue to finance those companies that still plan to build new coal plants, despite the appeals of science and the United Nations to immediately place a moratorium on these plants "
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/chi-finanzia-e-chi-no-il-carbone-le-pagelle-degli-ambientalisti/ on Mon, 14 Sep 2020 05:11:07 +0000.