Your bank falls short in climate responsibility.
African Bank Limited is not transparent about its lending activities, so we cannot rule out that it finances the fossil fuel industry. The absence of detailed greenhouse gas emissions reporting makes it difficult to assess the bank's true environmental impact.
We would like to see the bank:
In its ESG report, the Bank states that: "30% reduction in carbon emissions in the Bank has been bolstered by the installation of solar panels at our Midrand Campus, harnessing renewable energy and reduce our reliance on diesel due to the ongoing loadshedding for power generation". This makes it sound like the bank has decreased its overall emissions by 30% which is not correct. The Bank is referring to its operational (scope 1 and 2) emissions only, which for a bank typically accounts for around 3-5% of total emissions.
If they engage in energy financing, they are likely to lend far more to fossil fuels than renewable sources. They may have limited or no effective policies to improve their climate impact and may lack meaningful targets for reducing the emissions they are responsible for.
While they might show some engagement in sustainable practices or offer certain green lending products, these efforts are insufficiently developed or prominently displayed to make a significant impact.
The Paris Agreement set the goal to stay under 1.5°C of warming for very good reasons. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, an increase of just a couple of degrees more could lead to "substantial species extinction, large risks to global and regional food security", and an inability to work outside — or even live — in some areas of the world. Our world will become unrecognizable as ocean dead zones, floods, and extreme weather fuel social and economic disruption.
Banks live and die on their reputations. Mass movements of money to fossil-free competitors puts those reputations at grave risk. By moving your money to a sustainable financial institution, you will:
Send a message to your bank that it must defund fossil fuels
Join a fast-growing movement of consumers standing up for their future
Take a critical climate action with profound effects