Global financial institution ING is accelerating its plans to slash funding for coal-fired power generation, aiming to reduce its exposure to close to zero by 2025.
Effective immediately, the company will support new clients in the utilities sector only if their reliance on coal in their energy mix is 10% or less and they have a strategy to reduce their coal percentage to close to zero by 2025, the company said in a Dec. 12 release.
Financing for clients that are more than 5% reliant on coal will be phased out by the end of 2025, as will lending to individual coal-fired plants.
"We realize that contributing to the Paris Agreement targets is also about making clear choices in what we'll no longer finance, especially when there are good alternatives available," ING Vice Chairman Koos Timmermans said in the release.
The firm stopped funding new clients whose business was over 50% reliant on coal-fired power plants ahead of the 2015 Paris Climate Conference.
ING's targets to reduce its own carbon footprint include reducing its CO2 emissions by 50% and sourcing 100% renewable electricity for all ING buildings worldwide, both by 2020.
