Australia’s big four banks financed more than $5 billion worth of coal projects in the past five years while promoting their green credentials, a report commissioned by Greenpeace has found.
The environmental lobby says the ANZ, National Australia, Commonwealth and Westpac banks loaned more than six times the amount of money to coal mining, power stations and exporting than to renewable energy projects.
Greenpeace says the banks have the power to make the green image they promote a reality - but won’t do that until they shift investment to green energy.
The report by consultants Profundo found the ANZ, which recently topped the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, was the biggest financier of the coal sector.
It put $650 million into coal power stations, $309 million into coal ports and $727 million into coal mining in that period.
Greenpeace’s John Hepburn said the ANZ was also the lead arranger of finance for Australia’s newest coal power station, Bluewaters II, at Collie, east of Bunbury, in Western Australia.
“While they spend a huge amount of time and money creating an image of sustainability and environmental concern, they are quietly using billions of dollars of Australians’ money to pollute our future,” he said.
Mr Hepburn said there were 12 new coal power stations in the pipeline for Australia, that if built, would increase the nation’s emissions by seven per cent.
“Whether or not they are built depends largely on the big four banks,” he said.
“They need to put their money where their mouth is and not lock future generations into this dirty form of power.”
According to the Profundo research, the big banks invested only $0.78 billion into renewable energy in the past five years.
The Dutch consultants also found that both Bendigo Bank and mecu Credit Union had no money in coal, but also no money in renewables.
