How Swedbank Has Almost Entirely Ditched Fossil Fuel Ties

It’s no secret that banks and the fossil fuel industry have close-knit ties.
Banks are among the biggest financiers of fossil fuels, directly contributing to climate change and the harm it has on wildlife and communities as a result.
The world’s 60 biggest banks invested US$705bn in fossil fuel companies in 2023, a report from Banking on Climate Chaos says.
This, it says, brings the total amount invested since the Paris Agreement to a staggering US$6.9tn.
North American and Japanese banks are some of the worst offenders, dominating the landscape and solidifying their place as the heaviest fossil fuel investors.
Fair Finance Guide’s Swedish division says in Sweden, banks finance almost 100 million tonnes of emissions per year — more than twice Sweden’s own territorial emissions.
But one bank has listened to public outcry for change and is near scrapping its relationship with the fossil fuel industry forever.
Introducing Swedbank
Nordic-Baltic banking group Swedbank is headquartered in the Swedish capital, Stockholm.
It has more than 3.8 million private customers in Sweden, as well as a further 3.6 million in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania
The group employs 17,000 people.
Johanna Fager Wettergren, Head of Group Sustainability, says: “Sustainability is at the core of our business strategy.
“We maintain our momentum in working for a long-term socially and environmentally sustainable society by strengthening and developing our customer offering.”
How is Swedbank moving away from fossil fuels?
Following protests by thousands of activists, Swedbank has stopped lending to oil companies.
“The banks must stop financing the hunt for more fossil fuels, it completely undermines the climate transition,” Jakob König, Head of the Fair Finance Guide.
Swedbank, as a result, joins Handelsbanken in the small group of banks globally that have stopped lending to oil companies. Handelsbanken made the same decision to not lend to oil two years ago.
Danish banking giant Danske Bank also declared an end to fossil fuel financing in 2023. Before this point, the bank reported that 99.9% of its carbon footprint came from financed emissions.
However, Fair Finance Guide says Danske Bank, alongside SEB and Nordea, continues to “pump billions into the fossil fuel industry, despite the banks’ climate promises”.
“It is gratifying that another major Swedish bank has become an international role model when it comes to sustainable financing,” says Karin Lexén, Secretary General at Swedish Society For Nature Conservation.
“Now more must follow suit and take responsibility, because there are still large fossil fuel companies that receive loans to continue operations that exacerbate the climate crisis.”
She adds: “The banks have long responded to criticism by saying that they are helping the oil companies to adjust. But the companies are continuing in the completely wrong direction by increasing their extraction instead of phasing it out.
“Now the banks must stop the loans just as Handelsbanken and Swedbank have done.”
The Swedish Society for Nature Conservation’s report says: “Since the Paris Agreement, Swedbank has provided US$3.6bn in finance to fossil fuel companies.
“Swedbank has almost completely stopped giving new loans since the second half of 2021.
“In the last two years, Swedbank has reduced its fossil fuel finance by 90%, compared with the two-year period before.”
The stance of other major banks
Swedish Society for Nature Conservation’s report unearths “an increasing divide in the Nordic banks’ approach to fossil fuels.”
The report says: “Swedbank has reduced its fossil financing drastically and Danske Bank has made a significant decrease.
“Nordea, SEB and DNB have only reduced the total value of new loans by 1% to 5%.
“Since the adoption of the Paris Agreement, the nine Nordic banks have in total provided US$73.4bn in loans and underwriting to fossil fuel companies.”
SEB says between 2019 and 2024, it has reduced its credit exposure towards upstream oil and gas activities by more than 75%.
It adds: “At the same time, our sustainability-related financing has increased 185% at the end of 2024 compared to 2021.”
As well as this, the bank has, by working with energy companies, reduced the average fossil share in its energy portfolio from 59% in 2019 to 30% in 2024.
The bank says: “Fossil fuels currently make up a significant part of the global energy systems. The greatest positive impact on the climate can be achieved by working together with our customers and supporting them in their transition.
“We continue to actively collaborate with our customers to support an orderly transition in line with the Paris Agreement.”
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