On August 12, Danske Bank, in connection with a new climate plan, designated a large number of fossil fuel companies that the bank would no longer invest in. But just a week after the bank had excluded 1,700 companies for their lack of climate action, including for not having a credible green transition plan, the bank landed a billion-dollar deal with one of the blacklisted oil companies.
This is what the investigative media Danwatch writes on Saturday.
On August 21, Danske Bank entered into a new gigantic financing agreement with the Norwegian oil company Ocean Yield worth almost one billion kroner. Ocean Yield, which owns and operates oil tankers, was one of the companies that, according to the bank, did not have a credible climate plan.
The case arouses great surprise among several experts that Danwatch has spoken to.
- When Danske Bank, on the one hand, blacklists a company and, on the other hand, enters into a multi-million-dollar agreement with the same company a few days later, it becomes almost impossible for consumers to see whether the bank actually lives up to its statements about responsible investments, says Rolf Høymann Olsen, consumer policy advisor at the Danish Consumer Council Think, which represents the interests of 90,000 individual members and 24 member organizations.
270 companies met the criteria
Financial data that Danwatch has gained insight into shows that Danske Bank has both lent money directly to Ocean Yield through a bond investment and acted as an intermediary to others investors.
Previously, Danske Bank's CEO, Carsten Egeriis, has made it clear that the bank does not want to "be exposed to companies whose business model poses a risk due to a lack of willingness to adapt." Today, the bank has “no comment” on questions about whether the agreement with Ocean Yield breaks that promise.
Thomas Meinert Larsen, campaign manager for responsible investments for the Climate Movement, is also surprised:
- It doesn't make sense that Danske Bank, with one hand, stops investments in a particularly problematic company like Ocean Yield, while with the other hand the bank continues to secure new financing for the same company, he says.
The Danish Consumer Council THINK believes that Danske Bank makes it difficult for consumers to assess the bank's ethical parameters.
- It puts consumers in a really bad position if they want to choose a bank based on criteria such as responsibility and sustainability, says Rolf Høymann Olsen.
Danske Bank has spent 18 months assessing the climate efforts of Ocean Yield and 2,000 other fossil fuel companies. Only 270 passed the bank's exam and were assessed as having "realistic transformation plans that support the transition to a more sustainable society."
Ocean Yield was not one of them.
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