Thread by @TimBuckleyIEEFA

Anyone else noticing despite the pandemic, global financial institutions seem to be accelerating their exit from fossil fuels, starting with formal coal exit polices that are tightening at an accelerating pace! Or maybe these two issues are connected i.e. accepting the science?!

Here is one of the latest ones, @HSBC removed its three country exemptions (Bangladesh, Indonesia and Vietnam) for coal power, and expanded their project finance exemption for new tar sands and arctic drilling. 🇬🇧✅
hsbc.com/-/files/hsbc/i…

It took a while, but now @Citi has strengthened their previously very weak #coal policy. Now it is not too bad + Citi has committed to tightening transparently every year till they reach zero coal finance by 2030.🇺🇸✅
citigroup.com/citi/sustainab…

And following Citi, Morgan Stanley put out a new coal exclusion policy as well.🇺🇸✅
(two US ✅ on the same day, @realdonaldtrump will be annoyed!)
morganstanley.com/about-us-gover…

And when we mentioned ABSA of South Africa's new coal policy, we missed Investec moved a month earlier to formalise their coal exit policy. 🇿🇦✅
investec.com/content/dam/so…

And looks like JBIC governor Tadashi Maeda has really taken exemption to being quite rightly named a "coal peddler" and so has re-iterated his commitment to cease new coal-fired power plant financings. 🇯🇵✅
straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia… by Walter Sim

And when we praised Austria/Verbund AG (a utility, not a financial intitution) for exiting coal entirely in April 2020, we should also have mentioned Sweden/Stockholm Exergi did the same thing, in the same week! 🇦🇹🇸🇪✅reneweconomy.com.au/sweden-exits-c…

So #25 coal exit announcements or upgrades year-to-date in 2020, taking us to #127 globally significant financial institutions in total. The trend is looking pretty terminal for coal.
ieefa.org/finance-exitin…

Given no major coal firms went bankrupt this week (so far), I thought I'd finish with a share price chart showing Whitehaven Coal Ltd has dropped three times as much as the Australian equity market in the last 12 months. That takes some doing hey @mattjcan!

Coal loopholes are slowly but surely closing, one by one, more than one financial institution per week. eco-business.com/news/no-more-l… by Tim Ha @ecobusinesscom

“You have coal looking very much like the energy market’s loser,” Carlos Perez Linkenheil, a senior analyst at Berlin-based Energy Brainpool, said. bloomberg.com/news/articles/… by Bill Wade @business

And we missed CNP Assurance tightened their coal exit policy with their results in Feb 2020. The exclusion reduced from >25% to >20% as one of a number of new steps forward. 🇫🇷✅ @Lucie_Pinson_ @ReclaimFinance
#26 for 2020 year to date!
cnp.fr/en/the-cnp-ass…

Ok, #27 for 2020 to-date, I'm falling behind again!
Overnight Deka Investment announced their new #coal divestment program, using a >30% of sales for coal mining & >40% for coal power generators; “Coal is no energy source of the future.”
Link in German. nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%…

And #28!
Union Investment's first coal policy divests for >5% of sales for coal mining, reducing to zero by 2025. Union are evaluating a >25% of sales for coal power generators threshold, with an exit entirely by 2035, if they have a transition plan. 🇩🇪✅ nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%…

Here is @urgewald's press release

https://twitter.com/urgewald/status/1253659222912401408?s=20

I think banks have had a look at the 10% annual deflation evident in #solar costs globally & realised this is a technology development that is terminal for coal?!
US$13.50/MWh a 15% decline on the previous record low? 🇦🇪✅
pv-magazine.com/2020/04/28/abu… by Emiliano Bellini @pvmagazine