NatWest to spend £100bn on climate and sustainable finance
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Banking giant NatWest has announced plans to provide £100bn of climate and sustainable funding by 2025 to support the transition to net zero.
Natwest previously announced a target of spending £20bn on climate and sustainable finance between 2020 and 2022 which the bank already exceeded with the early delivery of £21.5bn in the first half of the year.
“Our ambition is to be a leading bank in the UK and Ireland helping to address climate change by setting ourselves the challenge to at least halve the climate impact of our financing activity by 2030, to reach net zero by 2050, and making our own operations Climate Positive by 2025,” NatWest said in a statement.
The bank has announced changes to its funding criteria so that projects deemed eligible for funding align more closely with the bank’s green, social and sustainability bond framework and reflect the launch of green purchase and re-mortgage products.
It comes as the UK gears up for the UN’s COP26 climate summit which is due to kick off in Scotland later this month. Expectations are high with Sir David Attenborough dubbing 2021 the world’s ‘last chance’ to prevent runaway climate change from becoming unstoppable.
Read more: NatWest to launch first eco-friendly loans as part of new £100bn green funding pot