FILE PHOTO: Petro-Canada's Edmonton Refinery and Distribution Centre glows at dusk in Edmonton February 15, 2009. REUTERS/Dan Riedlhuber/File Photo
LONDON (Reuters) - The world’s biggest banks cut lending to fossil fuel firms by 9% in 2020 as a result of the pandemic, although funding has still risen over the past five years, a report showed on Wednesday.
The 60 largest banks lent more than $750 billion to 2,300 fossil fuel companies in 2020, down from $824 billion in 2019, according to a report by Rainforest Action Network, Reclaim Finance, Oil Change International and other non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
But the report said the fall, driven by record low levels of industry investment in the second half of 2020 as the pandemic hammered fuel demand, followed annual rises of 4.4%-5.5% since 2016, the year after the Paris climate accord was signed.