NatWest is bracing for an embarrassing showdown at its shareholder meeting this week, as investors and scientists demand an urgent reversal of what they call 'climate backtracking' - a move that apparently involves watering down restrictions on lending to the oil and gas sector and dropping some decarbonisation targets without a 'robust explanation.'
Campaigners including ShareAction are calling for protest votes against the bank's chair, Rick Haythornthwaite, at the annual meeting in Edinburgh on Tuesday. They've roped in heavy hitters like the Church of England Pensions Board, Rathbones Investment Management, EdenTree Investment Management, Nest, and the Greater Manchester Pension Fund - all of whom control a combined $1.4tn in assets and have signed a statement demanding a meeting within three months to discuss climate strategy.
If that weren't enough, ShareAction is also delivering a letter signed by 70 climate scientists and experts urging NatWest to 'show leadership and reverse the backtracking on climate commitments.' The bank's recent policy changes include dropping a commitment not to lend to oil and gas companies lacking a credible transition plan or failing to report carbon emissions, removing a promise not to finance exploration and production firms with most assets outside the UK, and abandoning targets for aluminium, cement, iron, and steel.
Jeanne Martin, head of the banking programme at ShareAction, summed it up nicely: 'NatWest spent years presenting itself as a climate leader, but quietly rolling back fossil fuel restrictions shows the board is heading in the wrong direction.' She added that this backtracking has 'real consequences, fuelling a climate crisis that is already damaging homes, health and livelihoods.'
A NatWest spokesperson defended the bank, saying it retained interim targets to halve its climate impact compared with 2019 while working towards net zero emissions by 2050. They claimed the bank had 'refined our approach to ensure it reflects the evolving policy environment' - which is a polite way of saying they're adapting to the times, even if those times are on fire.