ANZ has stepped up its financed emissions reduction program, detailing reduction targets for four more industries in its latest climate change update. As a member of the Net-Zero Banking Alliance, ANZ is committed to setting emissions reduction targets for nine climate-intensive sectors: agriculture, aluminium, cement, coal, iron and steel, commercial and residential real estate, oil and gas, power generation and transport.

Members are required to set intermediate targets that can be achieved by 2030 and net-zero targets for 2050. It had set targets for power generation and large-scale commercial real estate. On Friday it released targets for oil and gas, aluminium, cement and steel. The targets vary sector by sector. The target for aluminium is for a 30 per cent reduction in emissions intensity by 2030. The target for cement is a reduction of 20 per cent by 2030, for steel 28 per cent, for oil and gas 26 per cent, for commercial property 60 per cent and for power generation 50 per cent. Unlike previous disclosures, the bank included plenty of detail about the metrics it uses for these targets and its performance to date against benchmarks. It said it will set targets for all nine sectors by the end of 2024, by which time at least 75 per cent of its portfolio emissions would be on a “net-zero pathway”. It also announced that it has increased its target of A$50 billion of sustainable funding and facilitation commitments by 2025 to $100 billion by 2030. Since 2019 it has provided $40.4 billion of funding for 322 transactions that contribute towards “sustainable development goals”. The paradox of net-zero transition planning is that over the medium term big emitters will get more funding from banks to help meet their emissions reduction targets. The bank said that under its “more finance for customers on the right path” policy it will reduce its exposure to high emitting customers that have not improved their transition plans by 2025. The bank has previously committed to getting out of coal industry funding by 2030. On Friday it reported that direct exposure to thermal coal is down by 83 per cent since 2015 and it will stop all direct lending to the industry well before 2030. The update also provided some information about the bank’s approach to protecting biodiversity, which will sit alongside emissions reduction as a climate priority when the Taskforce for Nature-related Financial Disclosures are finalised next year. ANZ said it will expect business customers to use internationally accepted industry practices to manage their impacts on biodiversity. It has also produced a Land Acquisition Statement, which says it will not support customer activities that significantly impact on culturally or environmentally sensitive areas.