Banking on Climate Chaos 2024: Positive Money Response

London, 13 May 2024 – The 2024 edition of the annual Banking on Climate Chaos report published today reveals that UK banks continue to pour tens of billions of pounds into fossil fuel expansion, a year on from the UK Government publishing it’s Green Finance Strategy that contained no meaningful measures to wind down fossil fuel financing.

Five UK lenders – Barclays, HSBC, Standard Chartered, Lloyds and Natwest – channeled almost £39 billion (USD 48.349 billion) of new money into fossil fuels in 2023. This was more than these five lenders poured into fossil fuels in 2022 (USD 47.704 billion).

Barclays remains the biggest financier of dirty energy in Europe, according to the report, having significantly increased its financing of fossil fuels in 2023 from 2022 figures. 

Crucially, almost a third of the financing provided to fossil fuels from these UK banks in 2023 went to companies that are expanding fossil fuel production. None of the fossil fuel companies financed were judged to have credible plans to transition in line with 1.5 degrees of warming. 

In total, the figures suggest that the five banks have together financed fossil fuels to a total of £437 billion (USD 537.451 billion) since 2016.

Fran Boait, co-Executive Director at research and campaign group Positive Money, said:

“Coming just over a year since the UK Government published an updated Green Finance Strategy that contained no meaningful measures to wind down fossil fuel financing, these figures are yet more evidence that decisive action is needed to put the UK banks on track for net zero. 

“Huge amounts of investment is needed to drive the green transition. Yet the UK financial sector is pulling in the wrong direction, giving new finance to companies expanding fossil fuel production and locking in emissions for decades to come. 

“The financial sector has shown that whilst fossil fuels remain a profitable business, they will continue to funnel money towards them, despite the harms caused to our climate and economy. We urgently need the government to work with financial regulators and the Bank of England to curb risky fossil financing and direct finance towards the green industries of the future.”

Notes

• Banking on Climate Chaos is authored by Rainforest Action Network, BankTrack, the Center for Energy, Ecology, and Development, Indigenous Environmental Network, Oil Change International, Reclaim Finance, Sierra Club, and Urgewald.

• Full data sets  – including fossil fuel finance data, policy scores, and stories from the frontlines – are available for download at bankingonclimatechaos.org.

• In March 2023, the UK Government published it’s updated Green Finance Strategy, which experts warned was silent on winding down fossil fuels: https://positivemoney.org/2023/04/new-green-finance-strategy-silent-on-winding-down-fossil-fuel-finance-say-experts/#:~:text=experts%20%2D%20Positive%20Money-,New%20Green%20Finance%20Strategy%20silent%20on,fossil%20fuel%20finance%2C%20say%20experts&text=Download%20the%20full%20letter%3A%20%5Bpdf,down%20financing%20of%20fossil%20fuels%E2%80%9D. 

• The government’s 2023 and 2019 Green Finance Strategy documents can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/green-finance-strategy 

• Positive Money is a research and campaign organisation working towards a money and banking system which supports a fair, democratic and sustainable economy. Set up in the aftermath of the financial crisis, Positive Money is a not-for-profit company funded by charitable trusts and foundations, as well as small donations from its network of over 65,000 supporters. www.positivemoney.org.uk 

• For more information from Positive Money or to arrange a briefing/interview with a spokesperson, please contact press@positivemoney.org.uk or Simon Youel at 07817765517