Accept responsibility for the climate impacts
of its lending. Calculate and publish the embedded emissions resulting
from loans to oil and gas projects.
Adopt a comprehensive climate change policy,
including a target for annual reductions and the strategy to achieve
this
Rebalance its lending portfolio away from fossil
fuels and towards renewable energy. Immediate halt on all loans
to coal and tar sands.
Since this campaign began, RBS has begun to concede
on some issues:
In June 2006, the bank took down its website
"www.theoilandgasbank.com" and has stopped using this
title publically.
When our report "The Oil & Gas Bank"
was published in March 2006, RBS dabbled in climate denial, claiming
that there was still "debate" among scientists about
the causes of global warming. [1]
Yet by July 2006, the bank had adopted the rhetoric of taking
action on climate change.
RBS has begun to make major loans to renewable
energy. This is a positive step, but the bank cannot claim climate
credit from renewables projects while denying its climate responsibility
from funding fossil fuels.
RBS-NatWest is driving climate change and feeding
carbon addiction faster than any other British bank. Pouring billions
into fossil fuels and working intimately with oil corporations,
the bank is locking huge emissions into our future.
About the Campaign
People & Planet and PLATFORM are campaigning
for RBS to recognise its climate responsibilities and move its moneyfrom
the dirtiest fossil fuels into sustainable energy.
