NOS/Beeld Werkt
NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 07:00
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Rob Coster
Economics reporter
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Rob Coster
Economics reporter
ING no longer wants to have any interests in oil and gas extraction by 2040. The largest bank in the Netherlands announced this this morning.
The interests will be reduced by 35 percent in 2030; previously the target was 16 percent. The old target for 2040 was a 50 percent reduction, but ING now says it wants to stop using fossil fuels completely in that year.
Investments in sustainable energy from, for example, sun and wind, will actually triple, to 7.5 billion euros.
ING has offices in forty countries, does business in about a hundred countries and has a balance sheet total of a thousand billion euros. This is comparable in size to the size of the entire Dutch economy.
In recent years, ING has received a lot of criticism from action groups such as Extinction Rebellion, Milieudefensie and Fossielvrij NL. They called the bank the largest financier of fossil fuels. Campaigners blocked the entrance to the Amsterdam headquarters several times and demanded that ING “stop financing the climate crisis”.
NOS Campaigners dismantle Extinction Rebellion at ING headquarters
ING Chairman Steven van Rijswijk was one of the 82,000 attendees at the climate summit in Dubai at the beginning of December. The agreement that was concluded at the last minute will determine the course the bank will follow in the coming years, says Van Rijswijk.
“The world wants to move in a direction where they adhere to the climate agreement. That is good for society as a whole, and ultimately good for the economy and also good for ING.”
‘Economic reality’
The international agreements to phase out fossil fuels and increase investments in sustainable energy are an economic reality, says the ING CEO. “This means that fossil fuels are becoming less and less interesting and renewable energy is becoming more and more interesting. Ultimately, we can also keep our savers’ money safe with this.”
Van Rijswijk is referring to the danger of so-called stranded assets, property that no longer has value because demand has disappeared. This can also happen with investments in oil and gas fields, causing companies to suffer losses and the bank to lose its money. For financial institutions, it is therefore not only about climate policy, but also about risk reduction in long-term investments.
Agreements with customers
In the coming years, the bank will have the same discussions with customers about oil and gas as it previously did about coal. “We said there: ‘the percentage you generate through coal must be reduced’. And if not, we will move away from those companies. You can also imagine that kind of agreement with oil and gas companies.”
ING’s change of course does not mean that there will be no more investments in oil and gas, as the environmental movement demands. “We need time to move from a fossil world to a sustainable world,” says Van Rijswijk. “That has to do with the availability of sustainable energy sources such as sun, wind and batteries, the costs, and whether we can ensure that people get enough energy.”
2023-12-20 06:00:39
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