Dutch banks fall short on climate policy: report

Dutch banks still generally fall seriously short when it comes to climate policy and that sets the organizations behind, according to a new report published by the Fair Bank Guide on Wednesday, ANP reports.

Only SNS, ASN and Triodos scored well on their climate policy. Aegon, ING, ABN Amro, Rabobank, Delta Lloyd and Van Lanschot all scored an insufficient. According to the researchers, most Dutch banks don't require oil companies to prevent drilling in the fragile Arctic. They also don't publish measurable CO2 reduction targets for the companies in which the invest.

The researchers did note that the nine investigated financial institutions did improve their sustainability policies on a total of 50 points over the past year. ABN Amro and Triodos did best, improving on 10 points each, followed by ING with 7. Triodos most often got the highest mark of 10, and Aegon most often scored a 1.

The report shows that Dutch banks generally perform well with their policies on human rights, labor rights and anti-corruption. Though their policies on tax evasion leave much to be desired.

The Fair Bank Guide is an initiative of Amnesty International, Dierenbescherming, union FNV, Milieudefensie, Oxfam Novib and PAX.