By John O’Donnell
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Trillions of dollars of bank finance to fossil fuel companies is being routed via opaque financial centres in several countries, including the Netherlands, research published on Wednesday showed.
The study by Tax Justice Network, which campaigns against tax havens, highlights a lack of transparency in funding for energy companies.
The study examined 60 global banks’ $6.9 trillion of syndicated financing of fossil fuel companies, such as coal miners or shipping firms between 2016 to 2023, including loans, credit lines and bonds.
“We’re raising the alarm on banks and fossil fuel companies greenlaundering their finances to hide how much money they’re truly putting into fossil fuels,” said Franziska Mager, one of the report’s authors.
The Netherlands has introduced reforms to try to shed its image as a conduit for money flows to countries with very low taxation rates.
A spokesperson for the Dutch finance ministry said it had done much to combat tax avoidance, targeting money flows through the country and countering “abusive structures”, prompting a decrease of money going to low-tax-states.
The syndicated finance highlighted in the study represents a small fraction of overall bank credit to the fossil fuel industry but the study’s authors said it shows how the full extent of finance for fossil fuels is being hidden.
Major banks have come under increasing pressure from investors and environmental campaigners to step up cuts to fossil fuel financing.
Europe’s climate change monitoring service said last week the world has had its warmest northern hemisphere summer since records began and extreme weather will become more intense if countries do not cut planet-heating emissions.
Greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels are the main cause of climate change.
(Additional reporting by Toby Sterling in Amsterdam. Editing by Jane Merriman)
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