Despite pressure from activists, investors and governments, the majority of world’s 50 largest banks have not made sustainable finance commitments to respond to the risks of climate change and continue to finance fossil fuels, according to new findings by the World Resources Institute (WRI). Among those 23 banks with commitments, the average annual level of fossil fuel finance between 2016 and 2018 is nearly twice the annualized amount of sustainable finance commitments. Only seven banks had annualized sustainable finance targets greater than the amount of finance they provide for fossil fuel-related transactions. In the lead up to the United Nations Climate Action Summit last week, several banks including ABN Amro and Amalgamated Bank announced they will adopt measures to improve the transparency of their investments to measure their responses to climate change. Another group of over 130 banks including Deutsche Bank, Citigroup and Barclays announced they would adopt United Nations-backed principles for responsible banking aimed at pushing companies and governments to act quickly to avert catastrophic global warming.

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Reuters