Beyond Thermal: Europe’s financial institutions must act on metallurgical coal

Reclaim Finance calls on European financial institutions to phase out financing for metallurgical coal, noting that while some banks have project-level restrictions, many others have no commitments at all. The document highlights that the steel sector can become coal-free by the early 2040s and warns that continuing to fund metallurgical coal is a risky investment given the industry's transition toward cleaner alternatives.

• A significant number of major European financial institutions lack policies regarding metallurgical coal expansion. Out of the major institutions, only 10 have adopted such policies: seven banks (BNP Paribas, CaixaBank, Crédit Agricole, HSBC, ING, Lloyds Banking Group, Société Générale), two investors (Eurazeo and Nordea AM), and one insurer (Zurich), leaving at least 20 others with no commitment.
• Specific European banks are identified as laggards: BPCE in France, Natwest, Barclays, and Standard Chartered in the UK, Unicredit, and Deutsche Bank in Germany. Deutsche Bank is specifically noted for its involvement in a US$2.1 billion bridge loan for Peabody Energy Corp. to acquire methane-intensive metallurgical coal mines in Australia.
• Existing restrictions by some banks are insufficient because they operate only at the project level, which covers a very small portion of the financing received by companies expanding metallurgical coal. While Lloyds Banking Group and Société Générale have corporate-level restrictions, these only apply to new clients, allowing existing clients like Glencore to still receive financing.
• The steel sector is no longer considered "hard-to-abate" as technologies to eliminate coal exist, and the sector has the potential to be coal-free by the early 2040s. Metallurgical coal is described as having a potentially worse climate impact than thermal coal due to the methane intensity of underground mines.

APA

Manickawasagar, A. (2024). Beyond Thermal: Europe’s financial institutions must act on metallurgical coal. Reclaim Finance. https://reclaimfinance.org/site/en/2024/12/20/beyond-thermal-europes-financial-institutions-must-act-on-metallurgical-coal/

Chicago

Manickawasagar, Aatiraï. Beyond Thermal: Europe’s financial institutions must act on metallurgical coal. Reclaim Finance, 2024. https://reclaimfinance.org/site/en/2024/12/20/beyond-thermal-europes-financial-institutions-must-act-on-metallurgical-coal/.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=Manickawasagar |first1=Aatiraï |title=Beyond Thermal: Europe’s financial institutions must act on metallurgical coal |publisher=Reclaim Finance |date=20 December 2024 |url=https://reclaimfinance.org/site/en/2024/12/20/beyond-thermal-europes-financial-institutions-must-act-on-metallurgical-coal/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{manickawasagar2024beyond, author = {Manickawasagar, Aatiraï}, title = {{Beyond Thermal: Europe’s financial institutions must act on metallurgical coal}}, publisher = {Reclaim Finance}, year = {2024}, month = dec, url = {https://reclaimfinance.org/site/en/2024/12/20/beyond-thermal-europes-financial-institutions-must-act-on-metallurgical-coal/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }