AfrOil: Nedbank to halt funding for coal, oil and gas projects

South Africa’s Nedbank has decided to phase out funding for fossil fuel projects as part of a wider effort to reduce its net carbon emissions to zero by 2045. The group will work towards this goal by halting funding to organisations involved in thermal coal mining by 2025 and direct funding for crude oil and natural gas exploration.

This campaign will entail restricting the amount of financing offered to thermal coal mining, along with the trade and infrastructure related to thermal coal mining, to 1% of the bank’s aggregate total lending by 2025. The share will then be reduced further to 0.5% by 2030.

In a statement released last week, Nedbank indicated that it would not abandon gas entirely. The group will continue to provide financing for gas production “where it will play an essential role in facilitating the transition to a zero-carbon energy system by 2050,” the statement noted. It also said it would make exceptions for some projects, such as the integration of gas-fired facilities into renewable energy schemes as back-up power sources.