Overview

• Banks worldwide reversed a 2023 decline by boosting coal loans to $130 billion last year, according to Urgewald’s annual report.
• Deutsche Bank nearly tripled its coal financing to $987 million in 2024 while Commerzbank more than doubled its exposure, up 118 percent to $417 million.
• Chinese state banks remain the top coal financiers with $248 billion in credits extended between 2022 and 2024, far outpacing other regions.
• Only 24 of the 99 largest global banks have set plans to exit coal financing by 2040, well short of the IEA’s Paris-aligned phase-out timelines.
• Political and legal pressure intensified after eleven Republican-led US states sued asset managers last November, prompting six major banks to leave the Net Zero Banking Alliance.