COAL IT A DAY: Time for US banks to stop banking on coal expansion

The document analyzes the role of major US banks in financing the global coal industry, highlighting a gap between their public climate pledges and their actual financial activities. It argues that weak corporate financing policies allow funds to continue flowing to coal developers despite net-zero commitments.

• Between January 2019 and November 2021, US banks provided US$207 billion to the coal industry, making them the second largest providers of loans and underwriting services globally, trailing only Chinese banks.
• Five major US banks—JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, and Goldman Sachs—collectively provided US$40 billion to coal developers between 2019 and 2021.
• US bank coal policies are characterized as weak because they primarily restrict direct project financing, while the industry is largely funded through general corporate finance, which remains largely unrestricted.
• The document identifies significant loopholes in specific bank policies: JPMorgan Chase's 50% revenue threshold for mining companies is deemed too high, and Citigroup's exclusion of coal plant developers applies only to new clients.
• Joining the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ) and the Net Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA) has not stopped US banks from financing coal; for example, Citigroup provided two loans of US$503 million each to Mitsubishi after joining the NZBA.
• The briefing highlights financing provided to high-impact coal companies, including Glencore (which received funds from Citigroup, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, and Morgan Stanley), Adani, and Mitsubishi Corp.

APA

Rocamora, C., Her, H., Louvel, Y., McCully, P., & Pinson, L. (2022). COAL IT A DAY: Time for US banks to stop banking on coal expansion. Reclaim Finance. https://reclaimfinance.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Reclaim_Finance_Coal_it_a_day_September_2022.pdf

Chicago

Rocamora, Cynthia, Henri Her, Yann Louvel, Paddy McCully, and Lucie Pinson. COAL IT A DAY: Time for US banks to stop banking on coal expansion. Reclaim Finance, 2022. https://reclaimfinance.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Reclaim_Finance_Coal_it_a_day_September_2022.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Rocamora |first1=Cynthia |last2=Her |first2=Henri |last3=Louvel |first3=Yann |last4=McCully |first4=Paddy |last5=Pinson |first5=Lucie |title=COAL IT A DAY: Time for US banks to stop banking on coal expansion |publisher=Reclaim Finance |date=September 2022 |url=https://reclaimfinance.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Reclaim_Finance_Coal_it_a_day_September_2022.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{rocamora2022coal, author = {Rocamora, Cynthia and Her, Henri and Louvel, Yann and McCully, Paddy and Pinson, Lucie}, title = {{COAL IT A DAY: Time for US banks to stop banking on coal expansion}}, institution = {Reclaim Finance}, year = {2022}, month = sep, url = {https://reclaimfinance.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Reclaim_Finance_Coal_it_a_day_September_2022.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }