THROWING FUEL ON THE FIRE: GFANZ financing of fossil fuel expansion

The report finds that GFANZ members, including major banks and asset managers, have provided hundreds of billions of dollars to companies expanding fossil fuel production. It argues that the alliance's sectoral guidelines and individual member policies are insufficient to prevent this expansion, often relying on flawed decarbonization targets that do not explicitly prohibit new fossil fuel supply. The document calls for the adoption of robust 'no-expansion' policies, alignment with UN Race to Zero criteria, and the implementation of meaningful accountability mechanisms to ensure financial flows are redirected toward clean energy.

• The 56 largest members of the Net-Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA) provided at least US$269 billion in loans and underwriting to 102 major fossil fuel expanders between their joining dates and August 2022.
• As of September 2022, the 58 largest asset managers in the Net Zero Asset Managers initiative (NZAM) held at least US$847 billion in stocks and bonds of fossil fuel developers, with BlackRock being the largest investor at US$191 billion.
• Most GFANZ members lack robust policies to restrict financing for fossil fuel expansion; only one member, La Banque Postale, has a robust policy ending support for oil and gas companies developing new supply projects.
• The report identifies a systemic failure in decarbonization targets, noting that they often use intensity metrics rather than absolute emissions, allowing real emissions to increase while targets are technically met.
• GFANZ's relationship with the UN Race to Zero has weakened, with the alliance announcing in October 2022 that members are no longer required to join the campaign following pushback from major US banks over tougher criteria.
• The 102 companies financed by the top NZBA banks are planning to bring 137 billion barrels of oil equivalent into production, representing 60% of the industry's planned new oil and gas by 2030.
• The coal companies held by NZAM members in the study's scope plan to develop 257 gigawatts of new coal power plants, which exceeds the total capacity of the Indian coal plant fleet in 2021.
• The report argues that current target-setting methodologies are inadequate because they do not address the 'lock-in' effect of short-term loans for long-term emitting infrastructure.

APA

McCully, P. (2023). THROWING FUEL ON THE FIRE: GFANZ financing of fossil fuel expansion. Reclaim Finance. https://reclaimfinance.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Throwing-fuel-on-the-fire-GFANZ-financing-of-fossil-fuel-expansion.pdf

Chicago

McCully, Paddy. THROWING FUEL ON THE FIRE: GFANZ financing of fossil fuel expansion. Reclaim Finance, 2023. https://reclaimfinance.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Throwing-fuel-on-the-fire-GFANZ-financing-of-fossil-fuel-expansion.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=McCully |first1=Paddy |title=THROWING FUEL ON THE FIRE: GFANZ financing of fossil fuel expansion |publisher=Reclaim Finance |date=January 2023 |url=https://reclaimfinance.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Throwing-fuel-on-the-fire-GFANZ-financing-of-fossil-fuel-expansion.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{mccully2023throwing, author = {McCully, Paddy}, title = {{THROWING FUEL ON THE FIRE: GFANZ financing of fossil fuel expansion}}, institution = {Reclaim Finance}, year = {2023}, month = jan, url = {https://reclaimfinance.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Throwing-fuel-on-the-fire-GFANZ-financing-of-fossil-fuel-expansion.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }