Christian Aid Welcome RBS Energy Move

Thursday May 31 2018

Christian Aid have welcomed the Royal Bank of Scotland’s decision to reduce its lending to non-renewable energy projects.

The bank announced ahead of yesterday’s annual general meeting that it will cut lending to mining and power companies profiting largely from coal, and will no longer provide ‘project-specific funding‘ to new Arctic oil projects, new coal-fired power stations, new thermal coal mines or oil sands projects or projects which involve unsustainable vegetation or peatland clearance.

The Head of Christian Aid Scotland, Sally Foster-Fulton, said: “This is welcome news here in Scotland where many Christian Aid supporters have urged RBS to grasp this vital opportunity to shift finance away from fossil fuels and into more sustainable alternatives. The efforts of our campaigners, many of whom have visited local branches and written to the banks directly, have paid off with with this encouraging step in the right direction”.

Christian Aid’s Senior Private Sector Adviser, Keval Bharadia, added: “We’ve been watching carefully to see which UK bank would be the first to introduce a global ban on financing coal power projects and RBS has won that prize.   This pipeline of finance is crucial to whether or not we will successfully tackle climate change.  If the money keeps flowing to these projects, then the dirtiest energy sources like coal will continue to be burned and the world’s poor will continue to suffer the consequences of climate change.”

The move was also welcomed by the responsible investment campaign group, ShareAction. Project manager Sonia Hierzig said: “The strengthened energy financing policies of RBS implement many of ShareAction's recommendations for more robust management of climate-related risks. They also make RBS the bank with the strongest energy sector policies out of the top five UK banks.”

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