For the first time, more loans flow into green than into fossil projects. But that’s less to do with the banks than with Big Oil itself. The industry doesn’t need money, it has enough.
Without God ka Musi. This simple logic is behind one of the greatest hopes in the fight against the climate crisis: the power of money should ensure that emissions fall. If banks stop lending to companies for new oil and gas fields and instead invest the funds in green projects, the hoped-for change will come by itself, so the idea. The last decade and a half of ultra-low interest rates have shown just how much the financial sector can achieve. Capital was available almost free of charge – and also flowed heavily into the expansion and research into clean energy sources. The result: Photovoltaic is 90 percent cheaper today, the world consumes four times more renewables than at the beginning of the zero interest era. A number of large banks have used the momentum to jump on the green bandwagon; they have joined global networks like the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero and vowed to clean up their portfolios and scale back fossil investments.
The alliance recently received some cracks, but the idea apparently worked for the first time last year. With USD 580 billion (EUR 525 billion), more money was lent for climate-friendly projects worldwide than for new coal, oil and gas deals (USD 530 billion), according to Bloomberg. Is this the turning point? Has good money finally won?
2023-04-30 16:15:44
#limits #good #money
