BANKS DODGY DEALS CAMPAIGNS
About BankTrack
20 years of BankTrack – Our history
Visit us
Organisation
Our team
Our board
Guiding principles
Team up with us
Jobs at BankTrack
Our annual reports
Funding and finances
BankTrack in the media
Our privacy policy
Donate
2023-11-20 00:00:00
West Cumbria Coal Mine: dodgy mine, dodgier financier
2023-11-08 00:00:00
Westpac takes two steps forward, one big step back
2023-09-18 00:00:00
New report and blog: Barclays' bond with Adani
2023-08-23 00:00:00
Decarbonization: steel not making the cut
2023-11-20 11:26:40
Danske Bank excludes financing for oil and gas upstream expansion
2023-09-19 16:11:58
Société Générale announces leading climate policy on gas
2023-09-15 17:34:10
The number of major banks refusing to support EACOP reaches 24
2023-07-31 14:30:01
Equator Principles recognise projects’ risk to climate for the first time
Connect
2023-10-10 00:00:00
Still bankrolling coal (for steel)
2023-09-18 00:00:00
Barclays' bond with Adani
2023-06-26 00:00:00
How should financiers align with the Global Biodiversity Framework? Five Key Principles
2023-04-13 00:00:00
Banking on Climate Chaos 2023
See all publications
Sections
Banks Dodgy Deals Campaigns
Our campaigns
Banks and Climate
Banks and Human Rights
Banks and Nature
Banks and Pandemics
Our projects
Tracking the NZBA
End Coal Finance
Banks and Putin's war in Ukraine
Banks and Steel
Tracking the Equator Principles
Tracking the PRBs
Find a Better Bank
Banks and the OECD Guidelines
Media
News Publications
Financial Exclusions Tracker Equator-Complaints.Org Fossil Banks No Thanks StopEACOP Forests & Finance Banks & Biodiversity Drop JBS Bank of Coal Don't Buy into Occupation
BankTrack
About BankTrack 20 years of BankTrack – Our history Visit us Organisation Our team Our board Guiding principles Team up with us Jobs at BankTrack Our annual reports Funding and finances BankTrack in the media Our privacy policy Donate
Successes Contact BankTrack
Donate Mailing list Facebook Twitter Login
Home › BankTrack news ›
BankTrack News

NGOs file complaint against ING for violation of OECD guidelines

Organisations call on the Dutch bank to take further steps on climate
2017-05-09 | Amsterdam
By: BankTrack, Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth Netherlands & Oxfam Novib
Contact:

Jules van Os, +31 (0) 6-51573683, Press, Oxfam Novib
Yann Louvel, +33 (0) 688 907 868, Climate and Energy Campaign Coordinator, BankTrack

Groningen - ING Bank. Photo: Charles Roffey, via Flickr , licence under Creative Commons CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
2017-05-09 | Amsterdam
By: BankTrack, Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth Netherlands & Oxfam Novib
Contact:

Jules van Os, +31 (0) 6-51573683, Press, Oxfam Novib
Yann Louvel, +33 (0) 688 907 868, Climate and Energy Campaign Coordinator, BankTrack

Oxfam Novib, Greenpeace, BankTrack and Friends of the Earth Netherlands have this week filed a complaint against ING, the largest bank in the Netherlands, at the Dutch National Contact Point for the OECD Guidelines (NCP). The organisations claim that ING violates the OECD guidelines on the environment and climate change. The bank continues to lend billions to fossil fuel companies, with no plans to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions resulting from its finance. The four organisations called on ING Executive Chairman Ralph Hamers to make a concrete commitment at ING's annual shareholders meeting on Monday to reduce the climate impact of ING's finance.

Peter Ras, Senior Policy Advisor at Oxfam Novib, commented: "ING invests eight times more in fossil fuel companies than in sustainable energy companies. The bank does not indicate how it wants to improve this situation in support of the UN's climate target. It now has the opportunity to announce new and ambitious climate plans, to make our complaint against the bank for breaching the OECD guidelines unnecessary."

Kim Schoppink, Campaign Leader for Greenpeace Netherlands, commented: "ING has been talking up its climate efforts for years. But meanwhile it keeps on lending money to companies building new coal-fired power stations. To stop climate change, the coal-fired power stations need to close."

Johan Frijns, director of BankTrack, said: “ING’s coal policy was certainly a step in the right direction right before the Paris climate summit, clearly raising the bar for other banks to take meaningful steps forward and tackle climate change. Unfortunately, since then, we’ve seen too many of the policy’s pro-coal and anti-climate limitations reflected in persistent ING coal financing. The Paris Agreement is now in force, and much more determination to stamp out all the various financial avenues which the coal industry relies on is now needed from ING if it really wants to help ensure the achievement of the Paris goals.”

The OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises clarify the expectations of governments of OECD countries, including the Netherlands, of international companies regarding corporate social responsibility. Among other things, the OECD considers it important that companies report on how much greenhouse gas emissions their activities cause and that companies set targets to reduce their emissions. ING does this for the emissions of its own operations, but not for those of the companies and projects it finances, even though these emissions are huge.

The four organisations sent their complaint to the NCP this Monday on the day of the bank’s shareholders meeting, to put ING's climate policy under the spotlight and to encourage the bank to align its policy with the OECD guidelines. The organisations call on ING to commit, by 1 September 2017 at the latest, to comply with the OECD Guidelines on the climate impact of its investments. ING can do this by publishing details of the greenhouse gas emissions of its investments, as well as ambitious, concrete and measurable targets to reduce them. This approach should align ING's climate policy with the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C, as agreed by the Paris International Climate Change Agreement in 2015.

Download the complaint (in Dutch)
Download a summary of the complaint (in English)

Banks

ING

Netherlands
Active
Dodgy Deals

Cirebon 2 coal power plant

Indonesia
Project
Active
Coal Electric Power Generation

Cirebon 2 coal power plant

Indonesia
There are no active project profiles for this item now.

Punta Catalina-Hatillo coal power plant

Dominican Republic
Project
On record
Coal Electric Power Generation

Punta Catalina-Hatillo coal power plant

Dominican Republic
Sections
Banks Policies Dodgy Deals Campaigns
Our campaigns
Banks and Climate Banks and Human Rights Banks and Nature Banks and Pandemics
Our projects
Tracking the NZBA End Coal Finance Banks and Putin's war in Ukraine Banks and Steel Tracking the Equator Principles Tracking the PRBs Find a Better Bank Banks and the OECD Guidelines
Media
News Publications
Financial Exclusions Tracker Equator-Complaints.Org Fossil Banks No Thanks StopEACOP Forests & Finance Banks & Biodiversity Drop JBS Bank of Coal Don't Buy into Occupation
BankTrack
About BankTrack 20 years of BankTrack – Our history Visit us Organisation Our team Our board Guiding principles Team up with us Jobs at BankTrack Our annual reports Funding and finances BankTrack in the media Our privacy policy Donate
Successes Contact BankTrack
Vismarkt 15
6511 VJ Nijmegen
The Netherlands
Contact@banktrack.org
Donate Mailing list Facebook Twitter
©2023 BankTrack
BankTrack is a registered charity in the Netherlands (ANBI) - RSIN 813874658
Find our privacy policy here

Stay up to date

Sign up now for all BankTrack's news


Make a comment

Your comment will be reviewed, before being posted