UK banks are Europe’s biggest coal financiers, report finds — SkimNews
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- UK banks provided $8.3bn (£6.2bn) in coal financing since Cop26 in Glasgow in 2021, compared with $4.9bn from German banks and $3.4bn from French banks, according to a Urgewald report tracking 744 commercial banks worldwide.
- Barclays increased its coal financing by 34%, from approximately $1.2bn in 2022 to $1.6bn in 2025, while HSBC more than doubled its coal financing from $200m to $414m over the same period.
- Britain-based banks' overall flows to the coal value chain grew 17% over the period, while EU banks cut theirs by 46%, the report said.
- HSBC told the Guardian its financed emissions from thermal coal mining fell 94% between 2020 and 2024, and it has committed to phasing out thermal coal financing by 2030 in EU/OECD markets and 2040 elsewhere.
- Barclays defended its lending, saying many named companies are "diversified energy or mining" firms and citing billions to cleaner energy projects as part of $300bn in sustainable and transition finance over three years.
- Chinese banks dominated global coal financing at $289bn (62%, up 8%), with US banks providing $67bn (up 23%) and Indonesian banks rising 64% to $2.3bn — while global bank coal lending stayed broadly flat at about $117bn per year.
- Urgewald director Heffa Schücking called on Barclays and HSBC to explain why their financing "is moving in the opposite direction to the rest of Europe," warning that European progress is "being swallowed up" by rising finance elsewhere.
Why it matters: Despite the Cop26 "phase down" commitment, global bank coal financing stayed roughly flat at about $117bn per year — and UK banks are moving against Europe's 46% reduction with a 17% increase, directly undermining the credibility of Barclays' and HSBC's high-profile net-zero pledges as Chinese banks capture 62% of the global coal finance market.
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