Between 2021 and 2025, European banks poured a shocking US$30 billion into companies developing Australian coal mines, fueling a massive climate bomb.(1) New research from Reclaim Finance, published with BankTrack, Lock the Gate, Market Forces and urgewald finds that Barclays, Crédit Agricole and Deutsche Bank were among 19 European banks financing coal developers in the Bowen Basin, the world’s leading hub for metallurgical (met) coal. While all the banks have policies restricting finance for thermal coal, none apply any restrictions to met coal developers, even though the climate impact is worse.(2) Reclaim Finance is calling on banks to end this double standard and exclude all support for metallurgical coal expansion

European banks are financing a potential massive climate bomb in Australia that could unleash up to 800 million tonnes of CO2 per year, more than twice Australia’s domestic emissions from energy and industry.(3)

Nineteen European banks have channeled US$30 billion to met coal developers in the Bowen Basin between 2021 and 2025,(4) the world’s leading hub for met coal (5) – where more than 20 new met coal mines and projects are planned. Met coal is used for steel production, even though met coal expansion runs counter to climate goals.(6)

Of the 19 European banks financing companies planning met coal expansion in the Bowen Basin, Crédit Agricole is the #1 financier, providing $4.5 billion in financing. Barclays ranks second at $3.4 billion, followed by Santander at $3.1 billion. Deutsche Bank, BNP Paribas, UBS and UniCredit are also among the biggest supporters.(7)

If given the go-ahead, these projects will have disastrous consequences for local communities and nature, including on the Great Barrier Reef, with water pollution, habitat loss, and increased health impacts such as respiratory and circulatory disease.(8)

European banks claim to have turned the page on coal, yet they are financing companies planning a massive expansion of met coal in the Bowen Basin which risks emitting more than twice Australia’s domestic climate emissions. These very same banks have adopted policies to restrict thermal coal financing due to its impacts. Met coal is coal, and there is simply no room for new met coal mines if we want a livable climate. If banks are serious about their climate commitments, they must close this loophole now and exclude all met coal developers.

Yann Louvel, senior policy analyst at Reclaim Finance

The analysis found that, while banks have increasingly adopted stringent restrictions on thermal coal, met coal remains largely exempt – even though met coal emits more carbon dioxide when burned and leaks more methane when mined (see 2). 

While all of the 19 banks identified as financing met coal expansion companies in the Bowen Basin have a policy restricting finance for thermal coal, none of them has a restriction for companies developing met coal. Just four of the banks – BNP Paribas, Crédit Agricole, Société Générale and ING – excludes met coal mine project finance, but project finance is rarely used in the sector. Globally, just 12 of the 97 banks assessed in Reclaim Finance's Coal Policy Tracker restrict finance for met coal in some way.(9)   

Reclaim Finance is calling on banks to end this double standard on coal by introducing policies that rule out any support – direct or indirect – for metallurgical coal expansion. 

Read the report

This Press Release was originally published on Reclaim Finance's website here.

Notes

1. Reclaim Finance, BankTrack, Lock the Gate, Market Forces, urgewald, Coal Hypocrisy: European banks' double standard on thermal and metallurgical coal in Australia, October 2026. 
2. Met coal actually emits around 9% more CO₂ per tonne burned than thermal coal (2.67 vs 2.44 tCO₂/t), and is roughly three times more methane-intensive to mine: its seams are deeper and gassier, and a larger share is mined underground, where leakage is highest. The distinction banks draw is therefore commercial, not physical. Emission factors calculated from IPCC, 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories, Volume 2, Chapter 1, Tables 1.2 and 1.4, 2006. See also SteelWatch, Met coal: what it is and why it is a climate risk, April 2025; Kayrros, Methane Emissions from Australia's Bowen Basin, July 2021; Ember, Coal mine methane adds 27% to steel's climate footprint, January 2023. 
3. Australia's total domestic emissions from energy and industry were of 387 million tonnes of CO₂ in 2024, See e.g. Reclaim Finance calculation, using capacity data from Global Energy Monitor, Global Coal Mine Tracker, May 2026 release and combustion emission factors from IPCC, 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories, Volume 2, Chapter 1, Table 1.4, 2006; Our World in Data, Australia Country Profile, accessed August 2026. 
4. Data analyzed by Reclaim Finance, based on Banking on Climate Chaos 2026. Scope: loans and capital markets activities, 1 January 2021–31 December 2025, unadjusted, to companies planning met coal expansion in the Bowen Basin and listed on urgewald's Metallurgical Coal Exit List 2026. 
5. IEA, Coal 2025, December 2025. 
6. IEA, Net Zero by 2050: A Roadmap for the Global Energy Sector, May 2021 
7. Between 2021 and 2025, international banks channeled US$105.9 billion to companies planning met coal expansion in the Bowen Basin. Of this amount, US$30 billion came from European banks. Deutsche Bank ranks fourth (US$3.0bn). Next are UBS (US$2.9 bn) and BNP Paribas (US$2.5 bn). UniCredit ranks thirteenth (US$800 mn). 
8. Mining in the Bowen Basin has numerous other impacts on the Great Barrier Reef: See e.g. UNESCO World Heritage Convention, Great Barrier Reef, World Heritage List, accessed July 2026; See e.g. J. Cortes-Ramirez et al., Mapping the Morbidity Risk Associated with Coal Mining in Queensland, Australia, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 19, January 2022; J. Cortes-Ramirez et al., The hospitalisation risk of chronic circulatory and respiratory diseases associated with coal mining in the general population in Queensland, Australia, Science of The Total Environment 949, November 2024. 
9. Reclaim Finance, Coal Policy Tracker, accessed July 2026.