Bank.Green has received a $250,000 grant from the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation to support the further development of Watchtower, a new tool that helps identify gaps between banks’ public climate commitments and their real-world financing activity.
Banks increasingly publish climate policies and net-zero pledges, yet fossil fuel financing often continues in parallel. This disconnect undermines climate action and makes it difficult for customers, investors, journalists, and regulators to assess whether commitments are being honoured in practice.
To address this challenge, Bank.Green developed Watchtower, a system that analyses banks’ climate and exclusion policies and compares them with publicly available financing and corporate data. Where inconsistencies or potential breaches appear, Watchtower flags them for further scrutiny.
Watchtower processes banks’ published climate policies and sustainability commitments, then cross-references them against real-world financing information and corporate activities. The tool highlights areas where stated policies may not align with observed behaviour, supporting investigation, accountability, and informed public debate.
In early testing, Watchtower has been used by journalists and civil society organisations to examine fossil fuel financing by major global banks, helping to surface cases where coal, oil, or gas exposure appears to conflict with stated climate commitments.
Watchtower also tracks how banks’ climate policies evolve over time, making it possible to identify backsliding, weakened exclusions, or the quiet removal of safeguards. By analysing policy language across updates and comparing commitments against observed financing activity, the tool helps researchers and journalists detect patterns, loopholes, and emerging risks in banks’ climate strategies.
Bank.Green launched the Watchtower prototype in 2024, initially focusing on 60 major global banks. The grant will support the development of Watchtower into a full dashboard, incorporating policy dissection, historical tracking, and comparison features, alongside new datasets and a centralised policy repository.
The Patrick J. McGovern Foundation (PJMF) is a philanthropic organization dedicated to advancing artificial intelligence and data science solutions to create a thriving, equitable, and sustainable future for all. PJMF works in partnership with public, private, and social institutions to drive progress on our most pressing challenges, including digital health, climate change, broad digital access, and data maturity in the social sector.
“As banks’ climate pledges increase, there is a growing need for tools that can hold them accountable. Bank.Green’s Watchtower offers a way to examine whether banks’ stated climate policies align with their actual financing behavior. Our partnership will support the scale-up of this system so journalists, researchers, and civil society can better understand where commitments hold and where gaps persist, strengthening public oversight of the financial decisions shaping our climate future.”
– Nick Cain, Vice President of Strategy and Innovation, Patrick J. McGovern Foundation
More information: https://www.mcgovern.org/
Bank.Green’s mission is to shift financial activity away from fossil fuels by increasing transparency and empowering people to hold banks accountable. Through climate performance ratings, research, and investigative tools, Bank.Green works to strengthen public understanding of how finance shapes the climate crisis.
“Transparency and accountability are essential if climate commitments are to mean anything,” said Zak Gottlieb, Director of Bank.Green. “This support from the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation allows us to scale Watchtower and give journalists, advocates, and regulators better tools to assess whether financial institutions are living up to their promises.”
– Zak Gottlieb, Executive Director, Bank.Green
More information: https://bank.green
Zak Gottlieb
Bank.Green
zak@bank.green
+52 564-157-1453
Natalie Collison
Patrick J. McGovern Foundation
natalie.collison@mcgovern.org