It is Saturday, 13 November 2021 and, with a one-day delay on the agenda, the 26^th UN Climate Change Conference closes with the Glasgow Pact. A document that formally sets down the commitment to gradually reduce (phase down) the use of coal energy.
Also on the side-lines of COP26, the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (Gfanz) is officially launched: a coalition of hundreds of banks, funds and insurance companies pledging to decarbonise their portfolios.
Expectations were that, if not an immediate and definitive collapse, there would at least be a decline in the financing granted to the dirtiest, most obsolete and most polluting fossil source. This did not happen. The 650 largest commercial banks channelled 132 billion dollars into coal in 2022, 123 in 2023, 130 in 2024. “As if nothing had ever happened in Glasgow,” comments Katrin Ganswindt, Director of Financial Research at Urgewald, one of the NGOs behind the Still Banking on Coal report.

385 billion dollars in three years

Still Banking on Coal is a joint project by Urgewald together with 23 other non-governmental organisations. It draws on, among other sources, the data from Banking on Climate Chaos – the most comprehensive study on major banks’ support for fossil fuels – and on the Global Coal Exit List, the register of companies involved in the thermal coal supply chain. As mentioned, it examines 650 commercial banks worldwide. Between 2022 and 2024, these banks allocated a total of 385 billion dollars to the coal industry. Mostly through the placement of bonds or shares on the financial market on their behalf, but also – to a lesser extent – through loans. The figures remained substantially stable over the three years: the decline recorded in 2023 was promptly recovered in 2024.
The problem is that coal combustion is responsible for about 30% of the rise in global temperature. By 2024, the Earth had already exceeded, albeit temporarily, the threshold (not only psychological) of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. In a net-zero future, there is no room left for coal, yet banks seem unwilling to acknowledge this. “Investors must review their holdings in banks that continue to keep coal alive. Regulators must limit the financial flows that increase systemic risk. And civil society must call out every single bank that helps maintain the coal industry’s grip on our future,” stresses Ganswindt.

China, United States, Japan: where coal money comes from

Chinese banks dominate by far, accounting for 248 billion out of the 385. They channel these funds almost exclusively to domestic companies. The only one to have reduced its coal support is the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), which fell from 8 billion dollars in 2022 to 6.5 in 2024. By contrast, the top bank – Citic – became increasingly generous over the period: nearly 8 billion in 2022, 8.6 in 2023, and as much as 12.7 in 2024.
In other regions of the world, the figures are much lower. US banks reached a total of 51 billion dollars channelled into coal during the three years. Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo lead the ranking, with 6.8, 5.1 and 4.8 billion respectively. Another 21 billion comes from Japan: topping the list are Mizuho Financial (7.6 billion over the three years) and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial (5.2 billion), which are also the first non-North American banks in the Banking on Climate Chaos ranking, at sixth and fourth place respectively.
In the top 10 fossil fuel financiers, there is only one European: Barclays. Even in coal financing, the British giant is at the top of the list: the only one on the continent to consistently exceed one billion dollars per year. A “special mention” – if it can be called that – goes to Italy. Unicredit and Intesa Sanpaolo total 831 and 295 million dollars respectively over the three years: the first experiencing a sharp drop, from 523 million in 2022 to 165 in 2024, while the second shows a fluctuating trend (69 million in 2022, 140 in 2023, 86 in 2024). Overall, Italy stops at 1.16 billion over the period and thus ranks last in the top 20.

See: Il carbone resiste grazie alle banche: 385 miliardi di dollari di finanziamenti in tre anni

Photo. Chinese banks are the main coal financiers © Zhonghui Bao/iStockPhoto