CANBERRA: Australia’s big four banks invested three times as much in global fossil fuels as they did in clean energy in 2016, despite pledging to help Australia transition to a low carbon economy. The banks provided a combined $10bn to projects around the world that expanded non-renewable energy, according to finance group Market Forces.
ANZ and the Commonwealth Bank were the worst offenders, investing over $3bn each in fossil fuels. In the same period, ANZ only lent $225m to renewables, giving it a 14:1 ratio. Overall the banks invested $7bn more in fossil fuels than clean energy. Only NAB approached parity, lending $1.35bn to non-renewables and $1.3bn to renewables. Commonwealth Bank and Westpac invested $846m and $426m in clean energy respectively, which was 3.5 and 4.6 times less than what they invested in fossil fuels.
