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ING Further Restricts Lending To The Oil And Gas Industry
ING is further restricting financing to the oil and gas industry, reducing the volume of traded oil and gas it finances and no longer financing midstream infrastructure for new oil and gas fields, the Netherlands-based bank said on Tuesday. Last year, ING said it would aim to grow new financing of renewable energy by 50% by year-end 2025 and would no longer provide dedicated finance to new oil and gas fields. Under the policy from last year, ING doesn’t provide dedicated upstream finance – lending or capital markets – for oil and gas fields approved for development after December 31, 2021. Now the bank is also expanding that approach to midstream oil and gas, it said today, adding that it would respect the existing commitments to its clients. Still, ING is not outright stopping financing for all fossil fuels, because “There simply isn’t enough green energy yet, and even in the future a net-zero world will not equal a completely fossil-free world.” Financing fossil fuels is a “balancing act,” ING said in today’s statement, noting that “We want to balance our climate action with our societal role to ensure energy remains affordable and available for people and companies.” Many banks have moved to restrict financing to fossil fuels over the past year, but ING has one of the most ambitious policies in lending to oil and gas. Early this month, Deutsche Bank said it would start implementing a stricter policy for coal financing as part of additional measures to reinforce its net-zero commitment, adding that it would also update its oil and gas policy at some point. Deutsche Bank could announce some updates on its oil and gas lending policy in its Non-Financial Report which will be published on March 17, 2023. Last month, Barclays said it would no longer provide financing to oil sands companies or oil sands projects and tightened conditions for thermal coal lending in an updated policy, which, however, fell short of announcing overall pledges or targets in funding oil and gas. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
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