Civil Society Groups Welcome Royal Bank Of Scotland Preparing To Exit Fossil Fuels
BankTrack, Rainforest Action Network, Reclaim Finance and ShareAction welcome the announcement by Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) of ambitious new climate targets and a set of policy measures that, if fully implemented, will see the bank move well ahead of its peers towards taking up its responsibility in tackling the climate crisis.
The measures, announced last Friday by Alison Rose, the bank’s recently appointed CEO, include a significant commitment to ‘do what is necessary to achieve alignment with the 2015 Paris climate Agreement’ and halve the climate impact of its financing activities by 2030. This ambitious goal is to be achieved by measures including a termination of all lending and underwriting activities to companies with more than 15% of activities related to coal, with a full phase out of finance to the coal sector by 2030; termination of all lending for projects involving exploration for new oil and gas reserves; and ‘progressively withdrawing support’ for major oil and gas companies that ‘do not have a credible transition plan in place that is in line with the Paris climate Agreement by the end of 2021’.
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