Deutsche Bank to end global business activities in coal mining by 2025
Deutsche Bank has revamped its approach to fossil fuels, saying it will end global business activities related to coal mining by 2025 at the latest.
The new fossils fuel policy applies to financing as well as capital market transactions.
The policy trails announcements made earlier this year in which the lender committed to new sustainability targets and the issuance of the bank’s first green bond.
Deutsche Bank also said that it would not finance new projects in the Arctic or oil sand projects, effective immediately.
The lender had previously set itself a three-year objective of reducing its loan exposures to coal-fired power plants by 20 per cent, which it achieved at the end of last year.
The new policy contains new guidelines for coal power that prescribe how it should treat business activities with energy firms that are more than 50 per cent dependent on coal. It said it will “only offer financing to these companies in future if they present credible diversification plans.”
“Our new Fossil Fuels Policy sets us a strict framework for our business activities in the oil, gas and coal sector,” said chief executive Christian Sewing, who also chairs the bank’s Sustainability Council.
He added: “In its current form, the Policy sets us ambitious targets and enables us to help our long-standing clients with their own transformation. It will allow us to play our part in protecting the climate and helping the EU to achieve its goal of being climate neutral by 2050.”
However Urgewald, a non-profit environmental and human rights organisation, said that while Deutsche Bank’s announcement was a welcome step forward it was “still too little, too late”.
“Compared to international competitors the bank is still lagging behind on climate,” it said, pointing to BNP Paribas and RBS, now Natwest, as front runners.