As of November 2021, the month COP26 took place in Glasgow, institutional investors held over $1.2tr in global coal industry stocks and bonds, according to research from German environmental group Urgewald.
The findings are based on the global coal company database, the 'Global Coal Exit List', which is maintained by Urgewald and was last updated in October 2021. It covers 90 per cent of the world’s coal production and coal-fired power plant capacity.
The research also shows that around half of the credit volume can be traced back to just a handful of financial institutions.
Katrin Ganswindt, head of financial research at Urgewald, said: “[It is] widely known that the coal industry is the number one driver of the climate crisis.
“Financial institutions like to argue that they want to help the industry transform. But the reality is that almost none of the coal companies are on a meaningful transformation path and, alarmingly, they are still expanding...