HSBC Holdings PLC (LSE:HSBA) and Barclays PLC (LSE:BARC) have continued to profit from providing finance for new oil, gas and coal projects, according to new research.
While Europe’s big banks are talking up their green credentials, amid pressure to limit their direct lending to fossil fuel companies, research by a group of European media and non-profit campaigning organisations, including Follow the Money, the Guardian and Investico, found that corporate bonds remained a deep pool of available funding.
Banks helped provide more than €1 trillion (£870 billion) via the bond markets since the Paris climate agreement in 2015, the investigation found, using Bloomberg bond market data.
Deutsche Bank provided the most bond funding, the research said, underwriting bonds or providing bookrunning services for fossil fuel bonds that raised a combined €432 billion over the period.
This was during a time when the bank promised to reduce 'financed emissions' for the oil and gas sector by 23% by the end of the decade and 90% by 2050.
FTSE 100-listed pair HSBC and Baclays were also heavily involved, the research found.
HSBC, which has pledged to reduced its financed emissions for the oil and gas sector by 34% by the end of 2030, was involved in €423 billion of fossil fuel bond issuance since 2016.
Barclays, which unlike most of its lender peers has included its involvement in capital markets activities as part of its net-zero targets, worked with companies to raise over €350 billion from bonds in the period, the investigation found.
Also cited were France's Crédit Agricole and BNP Paribas, earning fees and enabling companies to issues bonds for a total of €351 billion and €295 billion respectively, according to the report.