As Australia and countries around the world continue to transition away from fossil fuels and climate change becomes an increasing concern for many people, our big banks are being forced to reckon with questions over how they invest their capital.
With extreme weather events on the rise, home insurance is often either unaffordable or unavailable for many Australians, yet billions of dollars are still pouring from our major banks into oil, coal and gas investments – the fossil fuels driving climate change.
Our big banks are being forced to reckon with questions over how they invest their capital
The big banks, for their part, say they are facilitating an orderly transition and remain committed to targets agreed to as part of the Paris Agreement signed in 2016.
But some experts say they aren't doing enough and are calling for them to back up their rhetoric by moving their investment dollars away from fossil fuels in a more urgent way.
Grazing in a changing climate
Peter Lake is a grazier in the New South Wales Northern Rivers region with 130 acres of land and around 65 head of cattle.
He says climate change has shifted the way his farm works.
"Since our first big flood in 2009 we stopped breeding cattle," he says. "Now we buy them and get them ready for the feedlot."
Peter says that traditionally they would grow one big crop and harvest it each year, but changes to the climate mean they now have to run 22 different small paddocks with varying crops and cycle the cattle through them. It's much harder work, and with much less profit at the end of the day.
I wish I was a significant customer of theirs so that I could take action they would care about
Peter Lake, grazier
"The increasing frequency and the unpredictability of climate cycles has now meant that we basically haven't been able to harvest. Our last successful harvest was our winter 2020 crop of oats, which we bailed in spring," he says.
Peter says due to increased costs and decreasing profits, many of the sheds and much of the farm property he owns is no longer insured as he simply can't afford it any more. He has banked with National Australia Bank (NAB) since buying his farm almost two decades ago due to their good reputation in the agricultural community, but says he has grown frustrated over their lack of action on climate.
"The banks in Australia really could make a big difference. I'm frustrated. I wish I was a significant customer of theirs so that I could take action they would care about, but they don't make enough money out of us to care if I got up and walked," he says.
Follow the money
Each of Australia's big four banks – Commonwealth, NAB, ANZ and Westpac – have made commitments to get to net zero emissions and transition away from financing fossil fuel projects.
But according to banking analyst Kyle Robertson from the environmental not-for-profit organisation Market Forces, many of those commitments are being actioned very slowly on the balance sheets of the major banks.
"The trend across the big four is that fossil fuel lending in general is coming down," Robertson says.
"But where fossil fuel lending is still occurring, which is still in the billions of dollars, the vast majority of that continues to go to companies with fossil fuel expansion plans, which we know is incompatible with the goals of the Paris Agreement."
Banks are lending money to companies with fossil fuel expansion plans.
How does your bank stack up?
Analysis by Market Forces showed that in 2023 ANZ spent $2.6 billion funding fossil fuels, more than any other bank in Australia, and that since 2016 the company had committed a whopping $35 billion to fossil fuels.
NAB spent $2.4 billion in 2023 and a total of $23.2 billion since 2016, while Westpac spent $1 billion in 2023 and a combined total of $14.9 billion since 2016.
Australia's largest bank, Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) had the smallest investment in fossil fuels of the big four in 2023, but it still invested $853 million. In total, since 2016, the bank has committed $23.9 billion to fossil fuel projects.
In August 2024, CBA announced it would cease providing finance to oil and gas producers and metallurgical coal miners without a Paris-aligned transition plan. The other banks are yet to follow suit.
We wrote to each of the big four banks and asked them directly about this analysis and the numbers provided by Market Forces. Not one of the banks disputed these figures.
What did the banks say?
Westpac was the only bank that provided a written response to the questions we sent them regarding its climate transition, their continued investment in fossil fuels and risks faced by their mortgage holders.
A spokesperson for the bank says "we work closely with our institutional customers with large emissions profiles, on their energy transition plans".
"Westpac supports a planned and orderly transition that balances energy security, reliability and affordability."
Both CBA and NAB pointed us to pre-existing statements on their websites and ANZ did not respond at all.
Growing risks
Robertson says that, while the banks do vary in their investments in the area, all need to be doing better.
"CBA seems to be the most advanced when it comes to transitioning away from fossil fuels," he says.
"Then you go down to ANZ, which has been a clear laggard and has continued to have the highest exposure of fossil fuels and the highest exposure to companies expanding fossil fuels."
He says the costs of inaction on climate change are not felt equally across society and calls on the banks to do more as well as to be more transparent.
"Banks definitely need to be more forthright with their customers about exactly how exposed they are to climate change and about how they're going to work with them to manage the risks," Robertson says.
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Stock images: Getty, unless otherwise stated.
