Deutsche Bank financed fewer oil, gas and coal companies last year
(Photo: imago images/Jan Huebner)
Frankfurt Last year, Deutsche Bank financed fewer fossil-fuel companies and projects than in 2021. This emerges from the report “Banking on Climate Chaos”, which was co-authored by the environmental organization Urgewald, among others. Accordingly, around 7.4 billion US dollars flowed from Deutsche Bank to the fossil industry in the form of syndicated loans and securities issues.
Just a few weeks ago, the company tightened its coal policy. The money house no longer wants to do business with new customers whose coal share in sales exceeds 30 percent and who do not present a credible diversification plan.
According to the new ranking, the bank is ranked 31st among the 60 largest private banks in the world in an international comparison. In Europe, Deutsche Bank is the sixth most important financier of oil, gas and coal companies and projects. Only BNP Paribas, Barclays, Crédit Agricole, Société Générale and HSBC rank ahead of the German money house.
“It may be gratifying that Deutsche Bank has improved in some areas. Despite this, it is still among the top banks in Europe investing enormous sums in dirty energy resources,” says Katrin Ganswindt, Urgewald researcher and co-author of the report. “The banks need to say goodbye to these companies.”
Deutsche Bank was initially unavailable for comment.
Million loan for LNG terminal
In one area, however, the bank significantly increased its financing volume last year: in LNG terminals. Here, the sum recorded by the study authors has almost tripled compared to 2021 from 340 million to 907 million US dollars. According to the report, this is mainly due to a loan for a terminal in the USA, in which the bank participated with 750 million US dollars.
This would create new export capacity for fracked US gas and thus pollute the environment. “The massive expansion of liquid gas infrastructure is not only associated with environmental and climate destruction, but also causes overcapacities, especially in Europe,” says Ganswindt.
Two other German banks can be found towards the end of the list. Commerzbank comes in 49th place with $14.6 billion, up from 46th last year. The report criticizes the company’s oil and gas policy as inadequate. When asked by the Handelsblatt, Commerzbank said it did not comment on studies by other organizations.
DZ Bank is second to last with $1.9 billion. The company also did not comment on the ranking, but said that two-thirds of its business portfolio in the energy generation sector consists of financing projects that rely on renewable energies.
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