British banks lead Europe in coal financing, Urgewald report finds

British banks have provided $8.3 billion in financing to the coal industry since the 2021 United Nations climate summit in Glasgow, more than banks from any other European country, according to a report by the German environmental and human rights group Urgewald.

The report, covered Sept. 30 by Matthew Taylor in The Guardian, tracked loans and underwriting from 744 commercial banks worldwide to companies across the coal value chain, from mining and power generation to logistics and trading. German banks provided $4.9 billion and French banks $3.4 billion over the same period.

Barclays and HSBC drove the British total. Barclays' coal financing rose 34%, from about $1.2 billion in 2022 to $1.6 billion in 2025, while HSBC's more than doubled, from $200 million to $414 million. Overall flows from British banks grew 17%, while banks in the European Union cut theirs by 46%.

"Barclays and HSBC should explain why their financing is moving in the opposite direction to the rest of Europe," Urgewald Director Heffa Schücking said.

HSBC said it has committed to phasing out thermal coal financing by 2030 in European Union and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) markets and by 2040 elsewhere. Barclays said many companies named in the report are diversified energy or mining firms and that it does not finance companies earning more than 30% of their revenue from thermal coal.

Globally, bank financing for coal stayed roughly flat at about $117 billion a year from 2022 to 2025. Chinese banks supplied 62% of the total.

This brief is based on reporting by Matthew Taylor, published Sept. 30, 2026, in The Guardian. Read the original: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/sep/30/uk-banks-are-europe-biggest-providers-coal-financing-report-finds