Tag: NatWest

Banks under fire for using flawed net zero study

Some of Britain’s biggest banks are under fire for relying on a flawed net zero study that could have influenced which companies they lend to.

Three men in lab coats and sunglasses examining documents in a dimly lit room.

Lenders used research that exaggerated the impact of climate change

Some of Britain’s biggest banks are under fire for relying on a flawed net zero study that could have influenced which companies they lend to. The Telegraph has the story.

Lloyds, NatWest and HSBC are among the lenders to have used research that exaggerated the impact of climate change on businesses and the global economy.

The revelation comes after the Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS), which publishes environmental guidance for banks, warned that some of its analysis was based on an inaccurate paper that was recently retracted.

Lloyds, NatWest and HSBC have all confirmed that they used the NGFS research, with some bankers accessing it to scrutinise the sectors most exposed to the net zero transition.

The three banks declined to comment on whether the research was used to influence lending or investment decisions.

However, the Bank of England said last year that banks were increasingly using climate forecasts to determine which businesses they lend money to.

This was partially down to bosses seeking to align with net zero, the Bank added.

A research paper from the United Nations in 2020, drawn up in collaboration with Lloyds and 38 other banks, also said the impacts of climate change should be considered when lending to companies.

Following the controversy, Andrew Griffith, the shadow business secretary, said: “This just highlights the risk of banks straying from their core job of lending into green ‘wokery’ which they barely understand and rely too much on others.

“Whilst too many have been willing participants, we now need a bonfire of the various regulations on climate.”

Details of the flawed study, which originated from a paper by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, came to light earlier this month.

The paper predicted that climate change would cost $38tn (£28tn) a year by 2049, while also warning that global economic output risked plunging by 62pc by 2100 if carbon emissions continued to rise unabated.

The NGFS first sounded the alarm over the research this summer, which it used to help produce estimates of the long-term economic risks of climate change.

The paper was then retracted this month, and the NGFS has said it will change the way it assesses the impacts of climate change by the end of next year.

Read the full story here.

NatWest combs customer accounts – and tells them to go vegetarian

NatWest is telling customers to stop eating meat and to drive electric cars after analysing their accounts to calculate their carbon footprint. A “Carbon Footprint Tracker” on the bank’s mobile app collates data of purchases made by its customers to make suggestions on how to be more green and reduce carbon production.

From NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT

By Paul Homewood

h/t Ian Magness

From the Telegraph:

NatWest is telling customers to stop eating meat and to drive electric cars after combing their accounts to calculate their carbon footprint.

A “Carbon Footprint Tracker” on the bank’s mobile app uses the transaction data of customers and makes recommendations on how to reduce the amount of carbon production their shopping supports.

The bank has told customers to consider mending their clothing as opposed to going to high-street shops to buy new outfits, as well as stopping drinking dairy milk in favour of plant-based alternatives.

It is also suggested that customers switch off tumble dryers, share car journeys, repair broken electronic devices themselves and wash their clothes in cold water.

Under the spending section of the bank’s app customers can switch between “my spending” and “my footprint”. Customers are told the impact of typical purchases.

In one example seen by this newspaper the app says: “If you spend £15 on a dress at a high-street shop, that could equate to a footprint of 16kg CO2.” Customers are also told how to cut their footprint, such as by buying clothes second hand.

Other recommendations tell customers to “save the planet” by turning off their central heating and taking fewer short-haul flights.

NatWest also outlines a number of ways customers may change their diets to become more eco-friendly, such as going vegetarian and partly vegan as well as cutting out beef and trying “meat-free Mondays”.

The bank’s app asks its users to try adding tofu and lentils to their diets as substitutes for eating meat.

Other lifestyle changes recommended by the bank include buying used furniture and renting or buying second-hand clothes.

Customers are given personalised carbon footprint scores in kilograms of CO2, released per month based on their spending habits, as part of its “ambition to be a leading bank in addressing the climate crisis”.

A message on the app reads: “The UK’s average monthly carbon footprint is approximately 1,000kgs [of CO2]. To help reduce the impact of climate change, scientists recommend that by 2030 we should aim for our carbon footprints to be around 180kgs”.

The suggested changes are categorised under different areas of spending, such as transport, groceries, bills and shopping and each comes with its own personalised carbon footprint rating based on how the customer has spent their money that month.

The interactive page on the NatWest app invites users who opt in to press a “start today” button for each recommendation, which is then added to a list of eco-friendly lifestyle changes that the customer has made.

It comes as the bank, which is backed by British taxpayers, is rocked by the Nigel Farage debanking scandal in which NatWest-owned Coutts bank attempted to close the prominent politician’s account after judging he held “xenophobic, chauvinistic and racist views”.

The bank has also been a prominent supporter of causes such as transgender rights and offers staff who identify neither male nor female double-sided lanyards to alternate between different gender identities.

One customer, 76-year-old Faith Scott from Surrey, said she felt the bank’s carbon footprint calculator was an “intrusion” into her life and said the bank should prioritise “looking after our money not our morals”.

“We don’t need all this preaching to us. I don’t take flights hither and dither. I grow my own vegetables and make my own food,” she said.

“Most people of our generation lived with hardship [so] we didn’t waste things.”

She added: “What gives the bank the authority to dictate its principles to clients, particularly when it is supported by taxpayers?”

NatWest’s carbon footprint calculator was developed by Cogo, a New Zealand-based tech firm, which offers retail banks a “personal carbon manager” for customers, according to the company’s site.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/banking/natwest-combs-customer-accounts-tells-them-go-vegan/

As one commenter put it, this is deeply sinister.

Just the fact that they are monitoring what we are spending our money on is bad enough.