Europe's banks rolled US $400 billion in oil & gas production funding

Banks in Europe have provided at least US $400 billion to fund the expansion of oil and gas production in the past five years, a report by the non-profit ShareAction showed on Monday.

During 2021, at least 25 of the region's leading banks – including HSBC, Barclays and Deutsche Bank – collectively provided $55 billion to energy companies planning to expand oil and gas production. Although that marked a fall from the $106 billion lent in 2020 and $83 billion in 2019, it was higher than the $49 billion and $50 billion lent in 2018 and 2017, the report said.

The International Energy Agency (IEA), have previously said there should be no investment in new oil and gas fields in order to have a 50 percent chance of capping global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial average.

However, energy industry professionals and energy ministers from various countries said that investment in oil and gas must continue in order to fund the energy transition.