At COP26 in Glasgow, many of the world’s commercial banks made pledges to decarbonise their portfolios. All well and good, except that according to campaigners Urgewald and 23 NGO partners, since Glasgow the pledges are wasting away.

In the past three years, commercial banks channelled over $385bn to the global coal industry. “It’s as if Glasgow never happened,” said Katrin Ganswindt, director of financial research at Urgewald, with the vast majority coming from China-based banks.

The research covered 650 commercial banks worldwide and revealed that 92 per cent of the $385bn commercial banks channeled to the coal industry between 2022 and 2024 came from banks headquartered in five countries or regions: China ($248bn), the US ($51bn), Japan ($21bn), Europe ($20bn), and Canada ($12bn).

Chinese banks almost exclusively back Chinese coal companies. Out of the top five Chinese coal banks, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) was the only bank, whose annual coal financing was lower in 2024 than in 2022. The other four top banks increased their support for the industry since 2022, whereby CITIC showed the biggest increase with almost $5bn since Glasgow.

“Our findings are a call to action for asset owners, financial regulators and civil society organisations who realize that financing coal puts our economy, the financial system and us all at risk. Investors need to reconsider their investments in the banks that are keeping coal alive. Regulators need to curtail financial flows that increase systemic risk. And civil society organisations need to call out each and every bank that is perpetuating the coal industry’s stranglehold on our future,” added Ganswindt.

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