Bank of America commits $300bn for low-carbon business

Bank of America has announced that it will mobilise an additional $300bn for low-carbon business activities through lending, investing, capital raising and advisory services.

This will mean than $445bn has been designated for the bank's Environmental Business Initiative since 2007, with $125bn set by spent by the end of this year globally.

“The need to mobilise and deploy capital to address climate change has never been more urgent,“ Bank of America vice chairman, Anne Finucane, said.

The $125bn to be spent by the end of 2019 is six years ahead of the initial 2025 target announced in 2013.

Since then, Bank of America has issued $4.35bn in corporate green bonds, and In May 2018, issued its fourth and largest green bond for $2.25bn, becoming the first US financial institution to issue four corporate green bonds.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch has also led green bond underwriting since 2007, according to the Environmental Finance Green Bond Database and Bloomberg New Energy Finance league tables.

It has underwritten $38 billion in green bonds on behalf of 100 clients, supporting more than 220 deals and providing critical funding to environmental projects during that time.

And by helping clean energy business tap global markets,, the banks is funding important sustainable projects while creating jobs and spurring economic progress.

EY took an independent look at a 25% subset of its second commitment – $30bn deployed in the US between 2013 and 2017 – and found this financing supported an annual average of 76,000 domestic jobs, realised a cumulative $70bn in economic output, and contributed a cumulative $36bn to GDP.

“As one of the world's largest financial institutions, Bank of America has a responsibility and an important role to play in helping to mitigate and build resilience to climate change by using our expertise and resources, as well as our ability to convene partners across sectors, to accelerate the transition from a high-carbon to a low-carbon society,“ Finucane added.

Image credit: Shutterstock