The following statement is in response to recent climate protests at NAB branches, where protestors have disrupted customers and colleagues.
NAB spokesperson:
“We respect the right for people to protest. However when these activities impact the safety and wellbeing of our colleagues and customers we will call police.
“Climate action is everyone’s job. We need to be part of the solution and support our customers as they take action too.
“NAB is the only Australian bank that has signed the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative’s Collective Commitment to Climate Action, working towards aligning business operations and lending portfolios to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
“We’re making progress on our goals of net zero emissions through our lending by 2050, and providing $70 billion in environmental financing by 2025.
“As announced in November 2020, NAB committed to a review of its oil and gas financing by September 2021and we anticipate releasing outcomes of the review later this year.”
Further Background:
- Thermal coal mining exposure at HY21 was ~$650 million, of which about a third is held solely to rehabilitate mine sites. (<8% of our total resource exposure and around 0.07% of our overall lending).
- Our renewable energy financing makes up almost 73% of our energy generation lending.
- NAB is taking into account the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) Net Zero by 2050: A Roadmap for the Global Energy Sector, in the context of our oil and gas review.
- We’re investing in our bankers through climate risk education to help them assist our customers as they transition.
- We’ve launched Project Carbon in partnership with four global banks to help corporations worldwide to use carbon offsets as a tool to implement their climate action strategies.
