UK banks are Europe’s biggest coal financiers, report finds

UK banks are Europe’s biggest financial backers of the global coal industry, providing billions of pounds in funding for the climate-wrecking fossil fuel in the past four years, according to a report.

The study found UK-based banks had provided $8.3bn (£6.2bn) in coal financing since Cop26 in Glasgow in 2021, when global leaders pledged to “phase down” coal use. This compared with $4.9bn from German banks and $3.4bn from French banks over the same period.