South Africa’s Standard Bank, the continent’s largest lender by assets, has loans and commitments worth 67.4 billion rand ($4 billion) to the coal, oil, and gas industries, according to self-reported figures it published on Thursday. Environmental activists have criticised the bank’s lending policy, including its financial support to natural gas development in Mozambique and its potential funding on a Ugandan oil pipeline.
The bank’s climate exposure report showed fossil fuel industries made up about 4% of all its lending and commitments as of December 31, 2019. Meanwhile, its exposure to the renewable energy sector was just 0.8% or 12.31 billion rand. Wendy Dobson, a senior executive with Standard Bank, said it had assessed higher carbon-emitting sectors in its portfolio and would develop short- and medium-term measures to manage a material risk to generating value for stakeholders.
According to the report, higher carbon-emitting activities, including coal-fired power plants, contributed to 1.84% of its total lending and commitments, compared to 0.35% on coal operations; 1.53% on oil trading and retail; 0.76% on oil and gas exploration and production; 0.71% on midstream oil and gas; and 0.78% on integrated oil and gas companies.
