’Record year’ for bank coal financing as latest UN climate warning looms

(BankTrack, Nijmegen, 29 October 2014) Ninety-two leading banks last year provided at least EUR 66 billion in financing to the coal industry, according to new coal financing data released today in BankTrack's ‘Banking on coal 2014' report. [1] The global campaigning network believes this represents a highly regrettable ‘record year' for financial support extended to the top 65 coal companies in both the coal mining and power sectors. In the same vein, a November 2014 report from Oil Change International (p.14) notes that "at a June 2014 ministerial meeting in Brussels, the G7 countries (a subset of the G20) reaffirmed their commitment to national fossil fuel subsidy elimination, as well as continued discussions on the need to reduce the climate impacts of export credit financing (European Commission, 2014)". But governments across the G20 countries are estimated to be spending US$88 billion every year subsidising exploration for fossil fuels and a significant percentage of these subsidies came from ECAs.