As the private sector is slowly coming to its senses about the urgent need to address climate change, one of Wall Street’s major investment banks has recently revealed its plan to further bring this urgency to the fore.
Over the weekend, financial behemoth Goldman Sachs announced its plans to overhaul its environmental policies, including pledging to spend $750 billion on sustainable finance projects over the next decade, as well as implementing stricter lending policies for fossil fuel companies.
The $750 billion will focus on financing, investing and advisory activity related to nine key themes within climate transition and inclusive growth finance, which includes things like sustainable transport, accessible and affordable education and food production.
As part of the initiative, the bank will also stop financing any project that “directly supports the new upstream Arctic oil exploration or development”, or any new coal-fired power generation project unless it also includes carbon capture or other emission cutting technology.
The commitment has the potential to steer fossil-fuel companies and other polluting entities towards more sustainable and inclusive business strategies and could serve as a commendable example for other actors in the industry to follow.
