Dutch Customers Start Moving to Climate–Conscious Banks

Dutch customers are starting to move to climate-conscious banks. One hundred customers of banks with the worst 'climate performance' have already left their banks since June 10 to join more climate-conscious banks.

Forty climate-conscious bank customers today cut in half their bank cards outside banking giant ABN AMRO offices because they no longer want to be customers of banks like ABN AMRO that invest money in industries like oil and coal that cause climate change.

The dissatisfied customers represent a group of more than one hundred people that have left their bank and moved to a new bank following the start on June 10 of a Milieudefensie / Friends of the Earth Netherlands campaign called "Climate Change, Not with My Money".

Since June 10 more than 2000 bank customers ordered information about moving to climate-conscious banks. “We welcome the fact that an increasing amount of customers no longer accepts that their own bank invests in industries that cause climate change,“ said Donald Pols, Friends of the Earth Netherlands Climate and Energy campaign coordinator. “They are taking action to make sure that their money is not used to finance things like coal plants and oil extraction.”

A report published last week by Friends of the Earth Netherlands concludes that Dutch banks are responsible for financing more than 594 million tonnes of CO2 emissions annually. [1] This is three times as much as the entire Netherlands emits in a year. ABN AMRO and ING/Postbank are the most destructive for the climate, followed by Fortis and Rabobank.

The most climate conscious banks in the Netherlands are Triodos Bank and ASN Bank. According to Pols, bank customers can substantially influence the amount of greenhouse gas emissions.

"Transferring ten thousand euros savings from ABN AMRO to the Triodos Bank or ASN Bank results in as much reduction of greenhouse gas emissions as not driving your car for six months," said Pols. Friends of the Earth Netherlands / Milieudefensie has been talking to the big Dutch banks for over a year, asking them to move towards a more climate conscious investment policy. “To date our call for action has been ignored. Now their customers are taking action by choosing to put their money where they know it will be invested without harming the climate”, said Donald Pols.