In response to NAB's updated climate policy, released today, the Australian Conservation Foundation's corporate campaigner Jonathan Moylan said:
"NAB's updated climate policy provides clear signs that the shift to a renewable energy future is underway.
"As of next year, corporate polluters will need to adopt science-aligned pathways to decarbonise if they want to access loans or bonds from NAB.
"NAB's policy effectively puts big polluters on notice that they cannot continue to ignore the science by building new coal, oil and gas projects that would put people and nature at risk from more deadly heatwaves and bushfires.
"The increasing focus on bonds and other capital market activities that fuel dangerous climate change is significant, given it is a greater source of debt for fossil fuel companies than corporate loans.
"This policy brings NAB closer into line with Commbank and Westpac and puts ANZ on notice that it is time to catch up to its peers in the banking industry.
"It sends a clear message to big polluters like Woodside and Santos that the days of ignoring the science are over.
"There is a disappointing note. As Australia's largest agribusiness bank, it is disappointing NAB has chosen to delay action to tackle the bulldozing of forests that are vital habitat and store carbon in the landscape."
