Banks edge towards carbon finance disclosure

Bernard Kellerman
Following the final two AGMs for Australia's Big Four banks, the Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility has congratulated the banks on what it said was improved disclosure as to how much carbon they finance.

"Now that both Westpac and ANZ have disclosed the emissions intensity of their power generation portfolio, shareholders can see that Westpac has a significantly lower carbon intensity than ANZ," observed Caroline Le Couteur, ACCR executive director.

"This information means shareholders can start comparing banks' fossil fuel performance using facts, not guesses," Le Couteur said.

"We expect other banks will be forced to move to more disclosure rapidly from sustained public, regulatory and shareholder pressure. In particular, NAB has committed to facilitating collaboration with other Australian banks to disclose more.

"However, there is still more to go. We don't know how much our banks lend to fossil fuel infrastructure such as ports and rail lines. We don't know how much their wealth management branches have invested in fossil fuel companies," she said.