ING Puts Restrictions on Financing New Oil & Gas Fields and Scales Up Renewable Energy Efforts
The ING Group, a multinational banking and financial services corporation, goes a step further and announces that it aims at the financing of renewable energy by 50 per cent by 2025 and decides not to provide dedicated finance to new oil & gas fields.
The corporation has taken the steps in line with the 'Net-Zero Emissions by 2050 Roadmap' by the International Energy Agency. The roadmap says massive investments are required in clean energy and infrastructure, which will lead to a decrease in demand for fossil fuels. The steps also support the European Union's 'Fit for 55' and 'REPowerEU' plans.
Michiel de Haan, head of ING’s energy sector, said: "The best way to reduce dependency on fossil fuels is to make sure there are enough affordable green alternatives available. These steps support that and show we are serious about putting our financing to work to facilitate the energy transition.”
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In the development of energy strategy, the corporation has three interests: the need to decarbonise to fight climate change, the need for energy to remain affordable for people and companies, and the need for security of the energy supply.
The steps announced by the corporation follow a path that it embarked on years ago. It pledged in 2017 to exit coal-fired power plants by 2025, hence decreasing the exposure by 80 per cent. Meanwhile, financing power generation from renewable energy sources such as wind and solar has doubled, which now comprises around 60 per cent of its power generation portfolio.
The announcement is part of 'Terra approach' for keeping the rise in global temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius to go net-zero by 2050.
