15 April 2020
Market Forces has coordinated a letter signed by 52 organisations representing 4.2 million people from all over the world, calling on new Westpac CEO Peter King to end Westpac’s practice of loaning money to expansionary coal, oil and gas projects and companies.
See the full letter here. And The Guardian coverage here.
Since Westpac “committed” to the Paris Climate Agreement goals in late 2015, it has loaned $5.4 billion to fossil fuels, including $846 million to projects that expand the scale of the industry and $1.5 billion to companies that are actively undermining said agreement by working to expand coal, oil and gas.
Over the same timeframe, its lending to clean energy was $1.9 billion, meaning that for every dollar going to renewable energy, Westpac loaned $2.70 to the industries fueling the climate crisis.
Westpac is currently working on an update to its climate policy, and the letter makes it clear the expectation is that Westpac will immediately ban the practice of lending to new fossil fuels in order to adhere to its own pledge to support the Paris Agreement.
For more on Westpac’s fossil fuel lending click here.
Take action. Fill out the form below to ask Westpac to align its lending activities to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees.