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ANZ began reporting under its massive $100bn target to 2030 moving $8,8bn in 2H23, $0.74bn was on-balance sheet lending towards climate solutions (i.e. 8% of the total funded and facilitated). ANZ’s ratio of RE to fossil fuel energy is 0.15: 1 (i.e. $15 in renewables for every $100 in fossils) which needs to accelerate to a minimum 1: 4 by 2030 to meet global climate goals. While governance around energy transactions is improving, ANZ needs to commit to no new funding or facilitation of capital that enables fossil fuel expansion. This commitment must extend to finance for customers who expect to rely on CCS as an emissions reduction strategy where the IEA this month found CCS to be completely “inconceivable” and unviable. Read more

NAB’s exposure to renewables is higher than its on-book fossil fuel financing for the first time but the full scope of its fossil value chain exposures and facilitative financing is not disclosed. This is inconsistent with NAB’s green financing disclosure and we call on NAB for greater transparency in fossil fuel financing. NAB supported the Australian Industry Energy Transitions Initiative (ETI) which models a 36% reduction in Australian LNG exports to 2030 and 75% reduction to 2040 against a 2020 baseline guided by the IEA NZE scenario. However, NAB’s oil and gas (O&G) financing policy does not stack up to this ambition, with major gaps in corporate finance, bonds, and facilitative finance. Read more

Energy lending trends in the right direction with renewables lending increasing 28% yoy as fossil energy exposures decreased 7% yoy. However, a significant accelerated pivot is required to lift from the current 0.7 to 1 energy supply investment ratio of clean energy to fossil fuels, and reach BNEF’s benchmark of 4:1 by 2030. While thermal coal exit commitments are on track, oil and gas (O&G) policy updates still do not restrict corporate finance and deal facilitation to companies or projects expanding supply beyond a 1.5 degree pathway. Read more

Treasury has opened its consultation on a sustainable finance strategy that promises to strengthen the ability for Australia’s financial markets to allocate capital to decarbonising Australia’s economy. One of its priorities is a sustainable finance ‘taxonomy’ that will establish what economic activities warrant the special consideration by green and transition-labelled finance pools focused on mitigating the effects of climate change. The potential leverage includes Australia’s $3.5tn superfund pool, the banking sector’s collective $400bn in sustainable finance targets, and the Government’s proposed Green Bond program. However, this mobilisation of capital for decarbonisation will only succeed if the taxonomy is credible and achieves widespread market adoption. Read more

Modernising the nation’s $10tn housing stock promises to ease cost of living pressures, improve the health and comfort of homes, whilst helping to solve climate change. Australian banks are the main entry point to financing home energy performance upgrades. With a combined 46% mortgage market share, CBA and Westpac have powerful levers to help transform and decarbonise the sector. Read more

CEF consulted with the NSW Treasury, the NSW Office of Energy and Climate Change and the Sustainable Finance Unit of the Commonwealth Treasury to provide input into their decision on whether a nationally consistent approach to transition planning is needed, what guidance would assist businesses and how efforts can best be coordinated. Read more

In an Australian first, the Commonwealth Bank (CBA) – Australia’s biggest mortgage lender with over 25% of the market – has established a 60% emissions intensity reduction target on its mortgage book by 2030. This is a good start aided strongly by efforts to decarbonise the power grid, but also through policy advocacy and a future focus on customer engagement which we look forward to more details on. Read more

CEF Special Advisor Paul Oosting looks at Australia’s opportunity to reform superannuation benchmarks to support investment in energy transition in light of last week’s release of the Intergenerational Report by Treasurer Jim Chalmers. Read more

CBA released a landmark fossil fuel financing policy that rules out project finance for new (greenfield) oil and gas (O&G) extraction and for expansions of existing (brownfield) O&G extraction. CBA will also require fossil fuel clients to commit to verifiable transition plans by 2025 encompassing Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions and aligned to a Paris Agreement “well below 2 degrees” pathway. Read more

Global climate financing momentum is accelerating towards a decarbonised economy. Australia has a once in a lifetime opportunity to invest to generate affordable clean energy (SDG 7) create economic strength (SDG 8), responsible production (SDG 12) and act to mitigate climate change this decade (SDG 13). Read more

Last week, BNP Paribas (BNPP) released its oil and gas financing policy committing the bank to excluding the financing of new oil and gas fields, and making it the second largest bank in the world, after HSBC, to make such a commitment. This builds on BNPP’s target of January 2023 that by 2030, low-carbon energies would account for 4/5 of the Group’s financing for energy production. Read more