“Climate change is a significant risk to the planet and a major challenge for society to address – we acknowledge there is a lot of work to do. As a bank, our role is to support our customers and communities through the transition and fund the investments needed to create a strong and sustainable future for Australia,” NAB Chief Climate Officer Jacqueline Fox said.

“As a member of the Net-Zero Banking Alliance, NAB’s goal is to align our operational and financed emissions with pathways to net-zero by 2050. We have set 2030 financed emissions reduction targets for power generation, thermal coal, oil and gas and cement and we’re now working with our customers to accomplish these. The targets we have set cover project and corporate lending to these sectors.

“NAB will support customers to accelerate the decommissioning of coal and gas-powered assets, while increasing financing to renewables – currently 70% of our lending to power generation.

“In relation to questions about financing particular resources companies or projects, NAB’s approach is not to comment on individual companies, customers or transactions. NAB has set targets at a sector level and will be transparent in its progress to achieve them.”

NAB is reducing its exposure to thermal coal:

• • NAB’s target is to reduce its thermal coal mining exposure to effectively zero by 2030, aside from residual performance guarantees to rehabilitate existing coal mines.
    • Since March 2020, NAB’s thermal coal mining exposure has reduced by 50% to $0.37bn (at 31 March 2023).
    • Close to one quarter of this exposure is performance guarantees for rehabilitation of existing coal mines.
  • NAB is not directly financing any new thermal coal mining projects – and has not since 2015.
  • NAB is not taking on new thermal coal mining customers.
  • NAB is not directly financing new or material expansions of coal-fired power generation facilities.

“Further information on NAB’s decarbonisation targets and risk settings are detailed in our 2022 Climate Report, which we encourage all stakeholders seeking to understand our approach to read,” Ms Fox said.

Net-Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA)

• NAB became a signatory of the Net-Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA) in late 2021. The NZBA is an industry-led and United Nations-convened project which brings together a global group of banks committed to aligning their lending and investment portfolios with net-zero emissions by 2050.
• It’s the flagship climate initiative under the UN Principles for Responsible Banking, requiring signatory banks to set interim targets for 2030 or sooner by using robust, science-based guidelines.
• NAB has set interim targets for power generation, thermal coal, oil and gas and cement as they represent the majority of financed emissions in the lending portfolio. IEA’s Net Zero Emissions 2050 scenario used as the reference scenario for all four initial targets.
• NAB will set further interim sector-level targets by May 2024, consistent with NZBA requirements.