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Groundbreaking research reveals the financiers of the coal industry
Today, Urgewald & partners published an analysis of the financiers & investors behind the entire coal industry for the 1st time. One of the shocking results was that banks provide more money to coal than in 2016.
- US investors hold 58% of institutional investments in the coal industry - Commercial banks providing more money to the coal industry than in 2016 - Japanese banks are top lenders, Chinese banks top underwriters Today, Urgewald, Reclaim Finance, Rainforest Action Network, 350.org Japan and 25 further NGO partners published groundbreaking research on the financiers and investors behind the global coal industry. “This is the first time anyone has attempted to analyze commercial banks’ and institutional investors’ exposure to the entire coal industry. In past years, the scope of our financial research was limited to around 200 coal plant developers. Our new research, however, analyzes financial flows to all 934 companies on the Global Coal Exit List (GCEL),” says Katrin Ganswindt, head of financial research at Urgewald. Top Institutional Investors in the Coal Industry In January 2021, 4,488 institutional investors held investments totaling USD 1.03 trillion in companies operating along the thermal coal value chain. Among the investors covered by the NGOs’ research are pension funds, mutual funds, asset managers, insurance companies, hedge funds, commercial banks, sovereign wealth funds and other types of institutional investors. The world’s largest institutional investor in the coal industry is the US mutual fund company Vanguard with holdings of almost USD 86 billion. It is closely followed by BlackRock, which holds investments of over USD 84 billion in the coal industry. Together, these…