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Some of Britain\u2019s biggest banks contributed billions of pounds to oil and gas financing last year, while just two were found to meet high ethical standards, analysis by a consumer group has revealed.<\/p>\n
Which? Money<\/a> said consumers may not be aware that some high street lenders were investing \u201cever larger sums into environmentally damaging industries\u201d.<\/p>\n Which?\u2019s analysis follows research finding that the world\u2019s biggest banks significantly increased their fossil fuel finance in 2024.<\/p>\n It marked a shift in direction after the financing had been decreasing over the previous years since 2021.<\/p>\n The top 65 lenders committed 869 billion dollars (\u00a3648 billion) in financing fossil fuels, the Banking on Climate Chaos report said in June.<\/p>\n Which?, alongside non-governmental research groups Reclaim Finance and Global Canopy, examined the environmental policies of 16 current account providers in the UK.<\/p>\n It highlighted two banks \u2013 the Co-operative Bank and Triodos Bank \u2013 that had no exposure to fossil fuels in their banking activities and set themselves high ethical standards.<\/p>\n Which? gave the two lenders\u00a0an \u201cEco Provider\u201d endorsement for their green credentials.<\/p>\n It found that Triodos was unique in publishing its entire loan portfolio so customers can see where their money is being spent.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, seven banks \u2013 Barclays<\/a>, Chase, Danske Bank<\/a>, HSBC, Lloyds, NatWest<\/a> and Santander<\/a> \u2013 were found to contribute significantly to the financing of fossil fuels.<\/p>\n Which?\u2019s analysis showed that JP Morgan\u2019s Chase had coal, oil and gas policies which enable firms to actively expand operations involving fossil fuels, while it had also replaced strong deforestation requirements for some companies with weaker ones.<\/p>\n The bank was the largest fossil fuel financier in the world, committing 53.5 billion dollars (\u00a340 billion) to fossil fuel companies in 2024, according to the Banking on Climate Chaos report.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for JP Morgan Chase said it was the \u201cleading global financier of diversified energy sources\u201d and that it had a target of one trillion US dollars (\u00a3750 billion) for climate initiatives by the end of 2030.<\/p>\n Santander was found to have policies that allow it to support its customers developing new fossil fuel projects, while also lacking key protections for palm oil, soil, beef, and leather.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for Santander said it is \u201csupporting companies in their transition to a low-carbon economy and has been financing the build-out of renewable energy capacity for decades\u201d.<\/p>\n Barclays and HSBC were called out by Which? for significantly increasing their financing of fossil fuel projects last year, despite publicly making clean energy commitments.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for Barclays said: \u201cMany of the economies we serve still depend on conventional energy for reliable and affordable power as they transition to renewables.\u201d<\/p>\n The bank added that it was committed to its ambition to be a net zero bank by 2050.<\/p>\n Which?\u2019s analysis showed that Lloyds and NatWest were less involved in fossil fuels than their peers, with more solid requirements for companies and transparency in their reporting, but still contributed billions of pounds.<\/p>\n Sam Richardson, Which? Money\u2019s deputy editor, said: \u201cMany consumers want to make sustainable choices, but a lack of accountability and transparency in the banking sector can make it hard to understand where customers\u2019 money is really going.<\/p>\n \u201cWorryingly, our latest research has shown that far from making progress in this area, many major banks are instead choosing to invest ever larger sums into environmentally damaging industries.\u201d<\/p>\n He added that the \u201cEco Provider\u201d label highlights banks that have \u201czero exposure to the likes of coal, oil or gas in their banking activities\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20222,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[288],"tags":[289],"class_list":{"0":"post-20221","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-danske-bank","8":"tag-danske-bank"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20221\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}