Standard Bank does not intend to pull finance from fossil fuels"overnight", as it would be impractical, says executive Kenny Fihla.
Standard Bank on Tuesday held a briefing on the progress it has made since launching its climate policy in March 2022. "I think it will be devastating, disastrous and counter-productive for us to us suddenly pull all these lines overnight. And no reasonable person will expect us to do so," he added.Standard Bank is among other financial institutions which have come under fire from shareholder activist group Just Share for its high exposure to fossil fuels.
"We are doing significantly better than the banks that joined the net zero banking alliance," said Dobson.Citing Standard Bank's, released in March this year, Dobson also pointed out that the bank's lending for non-renewable power generation, which includes Eskom, had fallen from 0.36% in 2021 to 0.3% in 2022.
Fihla similarly defended the bank, indicating that comparing fossil fuel exposure to renewable energy is a"false comparison", especially in the context of South Africa, where about 80% of electricity generation is still driven by coal."Banking is a derived industry – you bank and support what your economy presents to you," he said.
Standard Bank is acting as a financial advisor to the project, of which TotalEnergies is a majority shareholder, but has not decided whether it would finance it.Fihla noted the complexity of the project."It cannot be a glib answer of yes or no," he said.
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