{"id":88488,"date":"2026-07-22T23:39:43","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T23:39:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/88488\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T23:39:43","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T23:39:43","slug":"church-of-england-to-target-natwest-hsbc-and-santander-over-climate-backtracking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/88488\/","title":{"rendered":"Church of England to target NatWest, HSBC and Santander over climate \u2018backtracking\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Church of England Pension Board (CEPB) will target directors at banks walking back on their climate commitments this proxy season, starting with NatWest, Santander and HSBC.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen banks dilute or abandon commitments that investors have understood as being part of the company strategy and risk management approach, it raises serious questions,\u201d Laura Hillis, CEPB\u2019s head of responsible investment said in a statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The faith investor is not alone in taking a stance against the banks this year over their climate backtracking.<\/p>\n

Last week, Danish fund AkademikerPension announced that it would oppose<\/a> the chairs at NatWest and HSBC, along with directors at Santander, including the chair of its sustainability committee.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs an active investor, we have a responsibility to send a clear and strong signal that this is the wrong direction,\u201d CIO Anders Schelde said at the time.<\/p>\n

Both CEPB and Akademiker\u2019s decision was informed by recent analysis by ShareAction.<\/p>\n

The UK-based campaigner launched a tracker in January<\/a> to monitor the climate commitments of 34 of the largest banks.<\/p>\n

According to the tool, NatWest, HSBC and Santander have all weakened their position on fossil fuels.<\/p>\n

HSBC was also found to have \u201cdiluted the ambition of its decarbonisation targets\u201d.<\/p>\n

CEPB said it will take voting action against the reappointment of directors at banks that \u201chave materially backtracked on their climate commitments\u201d and warned that it will monitor other banks as the proxy season continues.<\/p>\n

Hillis stressed that the fund\u2019s action was not about \u201cpunishing\u201d companies that failed to meet commitments \u201cdespite best efforts\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is about integrity of governance,\u201d she said. \u201cInvestors need confidence that directors will maintain consistent, credible oversight of climate and risk policies. Where that confidence is undermined, we will act.\u201d<\/p>\n

Akademiker\u2019s Schelde acknowledged that the fund\u2019s vote will not affect the outcome at the banks\u2019 AGMs, but described it as a \u201cstrong signal\u201d and a \u201cnecessary tool to hold management accountable\u201d.<\/p>\n

CEPB\u2019s announcement was welcomed by ShareAction\u2019s senior campaign manager, Kelly Shields.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Church of England Pensions Board is right to draw a clear red line when banks quietly weaken the climate plans they once championed,\u201d she said. \u201cExtreme weather is already pushing up insurance costs, disrupting supply chains and driving up food prices, and these risks flow directly into pension pots.\u201d<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for NatWest told Responsible Investor that its updated policies \u201care designed to provide clearer, more practical support while keeping our approach to climate clear and accountable\u201d.<\/p>\n

The UK bank has retained its interim 2030 ambition to \u201cat least halve the climate impact of our financing activity\u201d, they added. \u201cWe will continue to engage constructively with stakeholders as we make progress on our commitments.\u201d<\/p>\n

HSBC and Santander had not responded to a request for comment at the time of publication.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Church of England Pension Board (CEPB) will target directors at banks walking back on their climate commitments…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":88489,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[21386],"tags":[665,602,7955,603,38244],"class_list":["post-88488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-natwest","tag-banks","tag-climate-change","tag-natwest","tag-pension-funds","tag-voting-engagement"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116966271328616781","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88488"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88488\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}