This report benchmarks the performance of Australia’s biggest banks in achieving their commitments to reach net zero emissions. Its insights are timely: we are now three years into the critical decade for climate action – the decade in which greenhouse gas emissions must be cut by half to limit global warming to 1.5°C.

Despite their public commitments, this report finds that the climate policies of Australia’s biggest banks are failing to deliver. They are not cutting flows of capital to damaging new coal, oil and gas projects. They are not scaling up the climate solutions at the pace we need. And they are lagging far behind comparable jurisdictions such as the United States and the European Union.

This report reveals the gaping holes in the big banks’ climate policies. While most banks now have policies around not providing direct finance to coal, oil and gas projects, their policies still don’t cover the main ways they finance fossil fuel expansion through general use of proceeds finance, bonds and capital markets facilitation.