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Banking on Climate Change – Fossil Fuel Finance Report Card 2019
World's top banks have poured $1.9 trillion into fossil fuel financing since the Paris Agreement was adopted, with financing on the rise each year
Banks and other/conventional oil and gas
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Oil and gas pipeline. Photo: Forest Guardians (Creative Commons)Go directly to: other/conventional oil and gas policy table and other/conventional oil and gas exclusion table
Conventional oil and gas
Conventional oil and gas is loosely defined as oil and gas that is found in sandstone and that can be extracted via ‘traditional’ methods. The oil or gas is situated in the open spaces between the sand grains and can relatively easily flow through the rock. Therefore, often only a few wells per basin are needed. These wells are drilled through the impermeable rock formation above the sandstone and allow the oil or gas to be extracted. In contrast, unconventional oil and gas resources are found in a variety of (sedimentary) rocks such as shale rock or tar sands and need to be extracted via additional, more expensive and more harmful technologies. Unconventional oil and gas formations also need more surface infrastructure to refine or transport them.
For this reason, conventional oil and gas production is often much cheaper than unconventional oil and gas production. Saudi Aramco, for example, is said to have the lowest oil production cost in the world at approximately 10 US Dollars per barrel, while other conventional oil production typically costs 20-40 US Dollars per barrel. In comparison, production costs for fracked oil varies from 40-90 US Dollars per barrel. Conventional oil and gas production is, therefore, relatively insensitive to changes in the global oil price and can be considered the ‘backbone’ of the fossil fuel industry. It was, and to some extent still is, the low-risk, high-profit sector that has so far received relatively little attention from politicians and civil society organisations.
In the context of this page, 'other/conventional' refers to anything beyond the oil and gas sub sectors that are spotlighted on other pages, such as tar sands and fracked oil and gas. It therefore includes predominantly conventional oil and gas, but also near-shore offshore oil and gas.
Banks and conventional oil and gas
The severity of the climate crisis requires that banks must urgently take steps to disengage from financing all business activities and projects that continue the world's reliance on fossil fuels. Banks must therefore end support for all new other/conventional oil and gas projects and implement a full phase-out for financing other/conventional oil and gas projects in line with the Paris climate agreement.
Bank policy scores on other/conventional oil and gas
BankLast update
Country
Details
Laggard
Follower
Front runner
Leader
Agricultural Bank of China
2020-03-01
CHN
0
0
0
ANZ
2020-03-01
AUS
0.5
0.5
0
Bank of America
2020-03-01
USA
0.5
0.5
0
Bank of China
2020-03-01
CHN
0.5
0.5
0
Bank of Montreal (BMO Financial Group)
2020-03-01
CAN
0.5
0.5
0
Barclays
2020-03-01
GBR
0.5
0.5
0
BBVA
2020-03-01
ESP
0.5
0.5
0
BNP Paribas
2020-03-01
FRA
0.5
0.5
0
China Construction Bank
2020-03-01
CHN
0.5
0.5
0
CIBC
2020-03-01
CAN
0.5
0.5
0
Citigroup
2020-03-01
USA
0.5
0.5
0
Commerzbank AG
2020-03-01
DEU
0.5
0.5
0
Commonwealth Bank of Australia
2020-03-01
AUS
0.5
0.5
0
Crédit Agricole
2020-03-01
FRA
0.5
0.5
0
Credit Suisse Group
2020-08-01
CHE
0.5
0.5
0
DBS Bank
2020-03-01
SGP
0.5
0.5
0
Deutsche Bank
2020-07-27
DEU
0.5
0.5
0
Goldman Sachs
2020-03-01
USA
0.5
0.5
0
HSBC
2020-03-01
GBR
0.5
0.5
0
Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC)
2020-03-01
CHN
0
0
0
ING Group
2020-03-01
NLD
0.5
0.5
0
Intesa Sanpaolo
2020-03-01
ITA
0.5
0.5
0
JPMorgan Chase
2020-03-01
USA
0.5
0.5
0
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG)
2020-03-01
JPN
0.5
0.5
0
Mizuho
2020-06-01
JPN
0.5
0.5
0
Morgan Stanley
2020-03-01
USA
0.5
0.5
0
National Australia Bank
2020-03-01
AUS
0.5
0.5
0
Natixis
2020-03-01
FRA
0.5
0.5
0
NatWest Group (formerly RBS)
2020-03-01
GBR
3.5
3.5
0
OCBC
2020-03-01
SGP
0
0
0
Royal Bank of Canada
2020-03-01
CAN
0.5
0.5
0
Santander
2020-03-01
ESP
0.5
0.5
0
Scotiabank
2020-03-01
CAN
0.5
0.5
0
Société Générale
2020-03-01
FRA
0.5
0.5
0
Standard Chartered
2020-03-01
GBR
0.5
0.5
0
Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC)
2020-04-16
JPN
0.5
0.5
0
TD bank Financial Group
2020-03-01
CAN
0.5
0.5
0
UBS
2020-03-01
CHE
0
0
0
UniCredit Group
2020-03-01
ITA
0.5
0.5
0
United Overseas Bank
2020-03-01
SGP
0.5
0.5
0
Wells Fargo
2020-03-01
USA
0.5
0.5
0
Westpac Banking Corporation
2020-03-01
AUS
0.5
0.5
0
Explanation
The point-based policy ranking assesses bank policies in four ways:
1) Restriction on direct financing for other/conventional oil and gas projects.
-
None (0), weak exclusion (1.5), strong exclusion (4)
2) Restriction on financing for companies that expand other/conventional oil and gas.
-
None (0), weak exclusion (3), strong exclusion (5)
3) The bank’s commitment to phase-out financing for other/conventional oil and gas.
-
None (0), reduction (1.5), weak phase-out (3), strong phase-out (5)
4) The bank’s commitment to exclude companies active in other/conventional oil and gas above a certain threshold.
-
None (0), enhanced due diligence/Equator Principles commitment (0.5), weak exclusion threshold (2), strong exclusion threshold (5), full exclusion (6)
A bank can obtain a total of 20 policy points for its other/conventional oil and gas policy. Based on this score banks are then classified as laggards (0-5 points), followers (5.5-10 points), front runners (10.5-15 points) or leaders (15.5-20 points).
Banks excluding finance for conventional oil and gas
A number of banks have already taken steps to fully or partially exclude other/conventional oil and gas infrastructure or companies involved in other/conventional oil and gas infrastructure operations from their investments. The table below lists banks that have taken such steps.
Exclusion table other/conventional oil and gas
BankLast update
Country
Details
Project
Company
NatWest Group (formerly RBS)
2020-03-01
GBR
0
-1
Explanation
This table lists banks that have adopted a full ( ) or partial ( ) exclusion policy for other/conventional oil and gas projects and/or companies. Click on 'Details' for the rationale of this assessment for each bank.
Feedback welcome
Our policy assessments are always a work in progress and we very much welcome any feedback, especially from banks included in them. You can of course also contact us for more information on specific scores and the latest policy changes. Please get in touch at climate@banktrack.org.
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