Addressing Climate Change and Environmental Sustainability
NAB has an important role to play in supporting our customers and the community in the orderly transition to a low carbon economy.
The actions we are announcing today as part of the 2019 NAB Sustainability Report are an extension of our existing climate change strategy, which has been in place for some time.
NAB has advised customers and a range of stakeholders on this decision to ensure transparency and clarity on our position.
We are adapting how we manage our portfolio, aligned with the Paris Agreement goal of keeping global warming to less than two degrees Celsius, striving for 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels while supporting security of energy supply in Australia and New Zealand and working with customers, related suppliers and their employees and communities in which they operate.
NAB will review our targets each year against the latest global climate scenarios and relevant technology developments.
Our latest actions are:
- Increasing our environmental financing commitment from $55bn to $70bn by 2025. We are Australia’s largest arranger of renewable energy finance and 69% of our energy financing in FY19 was for renewables.
- Increasing our internal renewable energy objective from 50% to 100% by 2025 and becoming a member of RE100, bringing together businesses committed to using only renewable electricity.
- Supporting current coal-fired power generation customers implementing transition pathways aligned with Paris Agreement goals of 45% reduction in emissions by 2030 and net zero emissions by 2050. We will not finance new or material expansions of coal-fired power generation facilities unless there is technology in place to materially reduce emissions.
- Capping thermal coal mining exposures at current levels and reducing thermal coal mining financing by 50% by 2028 and intended to be effectively zero by 2035, apart from residual performance guarantees to rehabilitate existing coal assets. NAB will not take on new-to-bank thermal coal mining customers.
