Financial flows for five leading banks in Sweden since the Paris Agreement
The authors mapped domestic and international asset portfolios and capital flows in climate-relevant sectors (e.g. carbon-intensive sectors, renewable energy) between 2010 and 2020, of the five main banks in Sweden: Svenska Handelsbanken, Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken (SEB), Swedbank, Danske Bank and Nordea . They defined financial flows as new investments in the form of corporate loans, underwriting or listed holdings, mainly focusing on the first two.
The researchers categorized recipients of these flows as high-emitting (“brown”) and low-emitting (“green”) services, to the extent that our data sources allow. Based on this classification, we combined the analysis of available balance sheets with tracking new investments to these and the “remaining” (“grey”) sectors that cannot be categorized. These measures capture a large part of the financial flows that should be affected by the adaptation to Article 2.1ci of the Paris Agreement, without detailing the specific environmental performance of specific companies receiving the new investments.
The analyzes indicate a limited adaptation to the climate goals of the Paris Agreement. The authors found that funding gradually increased in volume to sectors with high emissions, such as oil and gas exploration and production. The sampled banks have facilitated around USD 150 billion to these sectors since the Paris Agreement came into force in 2016, mainly through syndicated loans (USD 104.4 billion) and bond underwriting (USD 36.3 billion).