Steelmakers rely on metallurgical or coking coal to provide the carbon and heat needed to turn iron ore into molten iron in blast furnaces. While electric-arc furnaces are advancing, they must rely on scrap metal which means they can\u2019t replace coking coal at industrial scale. Green-hydrogen methods can work, but they need abundant cheap renewable power and large-scale hydrogen production, which are not yet widely available.<\/p>\n
Until those alternatives mature, analysts warn that met coal will stay critical to building the wind turbines, transmission lines and electric vehicles (EVs) driving the energy transition itself.<\/p>\n
China, US lead financing<\/p>\n
The report identifies 201 banks that financed metallurgical coal developers in recent years, with Chinese institutions dominating at 67% of global funding \u2014 roughly $14.7 billion. China Everbright, CITIC, and CSC Financial top the list, driven by demand from China\u2019s massive blast-furnace steel industry.<\/p>\n
The United States ranks second, contributing $3.04 billion. Jefferies Financial Group leads U.S. financiers, increasing its met coal funding nearly 400% since 2022. In 2024, Jefferies, along with KKR Group and Deutsche Bank, arranged a $2 billion loan to Peabody Energy, which later abandoned a major acquisition following mine fires in Queensland, Australia.<\/p>\n \u201cEven as the market signals decline, US financiers are clinging to met coal,\u201d Wagner said. \u201cNone of this is about protecting steelworkers \u2014 it\u2019s about cornering short-term profits.\u201d<\/p>\n Europe\u2019s \u00abdouble standard\u00bb<\/p>\n European banks, despite their climate rhetoric, channelled $1.54 billion into met coal developers over the past three years. Deutsche Bank, BNP Paribas, Santander, and Cr\u00e9dit Agricole are among the top financiers, many of which had pledged to stop backing new coal projects.<\/p>\n Much of this funding went to Glencore, whose mountaintop-removal mines in British Columbia have polluted waterways and destroyed ecosystems. Both Deutsche Bank and UBS previously vowed not to finance such operations but continue to support Glencore.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s hypocritical for European banks to brag about thermal coal phase-outs while secretly funding met coal mining,\u201d Cynthia Rocamora of Reclaim Finance, said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s hypocritical for European banks to brag about thermal coal phase-outs while secretly funding met coal mining,\u201d says Cynthia Rocamora from Reclaim Finance.<\/p>\n Japan and Australia were also found to sustain coal\u2019s lifeline. Over the reporting period, Japanese banks invested $1.22 billion in metallurgical coal developers, led by Mitsubishi UFJ, Mizuho, and SMBC Group. Japan\u2019s steel giants, Mitsubishi Corporation and Nippon Steel, are expanding coal mines in Australia even as they promote \u201cgreen transformation\u201d campaigns.<\/p>\n Australia\u2019s banks and investors added another $644 million, with Petra Capital and ANZ leading the way. Their financing has helped companies like Stanmore Resources and BHP extend coal mining well into the next century.<\/p>\n \u201cANZ\u2019s coal policy is not acceptable in the midst of a climate crisis,\u201d Adam Currie of 350 Aotearoa says. \u201cIts policies contain carefully crafted loopholes that continue to permit the expansion of metallurgical coal.\u201d<\/p>\n Coal\u2019s future<\/p>\n While banks keep the loans flowing, investors are ensuring coal\u2019s longevity. As of July 2025, institutional investors hold $30.23 billion in securities tied to companies expanding metallurgical coal operations, with U.S. investors dominating at $17.04 billion.<\/p>\n The world\u2019s top five investors are Vanguard ($3.33 billion), BlackRock ($3.05 billion), State Street ($1.97 billion), Berkshire Hathaway ($797 million), and Japan\u2019s Government Pension Investment Fund ($733 million). Collectively, they control nearly one-third of global met coal investments.<\/p>\n Despite its \u201csustainability-conscious\u201d strategy, Japan\u2019s GPIF has drawn criticism for holdings in Mitsubishi, Glencore, and Coal India. Meanwhile, Australia\u2019s largest pension fund, AustralianSuper, has boosted its stake in Whitehaven Coal to 8.47%. Whitehaven\u2019s Blackwater South and Winchester South projects threaten thousands of hectares of koala habitat.<\/p>\n Urgewald\u2019s report concludes that continued met coal financing is incompatible with the 1.5\u00b0C climate target. With the EU\u2019s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism taking effect and green hydrogen steelmaking gaining traction, the era of coal-based steelmaking, it warns, is nearing its end.<\/p>\n \u201cThe time for excuses is over,\u201d Wagner says. \u201cFinancial institutions must close the metallurgical coal loophole once and for all because, simply put, coal is coal.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" German environmental and human rights group Urgewald has exposed how major financial institutions continue to bankroll the metallurgical coal industry, funnelling nearly $52 billion into mine expansions between 2022 and 2024 despite global climate commitments. Its new report, Still Burning: How Banks and Investors Fuel Met Coal Expansion, reveals that banks provided $22 billion in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5100,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bez-rubriki"],"featured_image_src":{"landsacpe":["https:\/\/relinvestmentsgroup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Coal-mining-1-1024x445.jpg",1024,445,true],"list":["https:\/\/relinvestmentsgroup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Coal-mining-1-463x348.jpg",463,348,true],"medium":["https:\/\/relinvestmentsgroup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Coal-mining-1-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"full":["https:\/\/relinvestmentsgroup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Coal-mining-1.jpg",1024,683,false]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/relinvestmentsgroup.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/relinvestmentsgroup.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/relinvestmentsgroup.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/relinvestmentsgroup.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/relinvestmentsgroup.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5099"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/relinvestmentsgroup.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5099\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5104,"href":"https:\/\/relinvestmentsgroup.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5099\/revisions\/5104"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/relinvestmentsgroup.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/relinvestmentsgroup.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/relinvestmentsgroup.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/relinvestmentsgroup.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/relinvestmentsgroup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/TOP-5-Met-Coal-Banks-1-300x112.png\")
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