Report
Fossil fuel blocklist
The companies Australia’s big four banks can no longer touch
Executive summary
Market Forces has developed the first ever Fossil Fuel Company Blocklist for Australian banks: 23 fossil fuel customers of the big four banks whose business models are currently incompatible with the climate goals of the Paris Agreement and must be ineligible for any new or renewed finance.
All four banks have publicly endorsed the Paris Agreement and pledged to transition their lending to align with its goals and achieve net zero emissions by 2050. Yet Market Forces’ latest analysis finds that in the decade since the Paris Agreement (January 2016), Australia’s big four banks – ANZ, Commonwealth Bank, NAB, and Westpac – have continuously violated these commitments by financing hundreds of fossil-fuel companies, providing $43.4 billion to the world’s major coal, oil and gas companies including over $30 billion for fossil fuel expansion.
In developing this report, Market Forces has captured a decade of the big four banks’ fossil fuel finance deals and filtered them through the Global Coal, Oil and Gas Exit Lists developed by the renowned research institute Urgewald. These lists cover the vast majority of companies responsible for fossil fuel production and combustion.
This analysis finds that, since 2024, a clear divergence has arisen. Commonwealth Bank and NAB have markedly reduced fossil fuel financing while ANZ and Westpac have continued to open their cheque books to some of the world’s biggest fossil fuel companies.
ANZ and Westpac now stand out as Australia’s fossil fuel banks, accounting for over 80% of all lending from the big four banks to ‘Exit List’ companies across 2024 and 2025. Rather than supporting a transition aligned with their own climate goals and commitments, Market Forces analysis finds that ANZ and Westpac are funding a new wave of fossil fuel expansion as Commonwealth Bank and NAB have denied finance for coal, oil and gas.
This research coincides with a new era for Australia’s big four banks. From 1 October 2025, finance from ANZ, NAB and Westpac to select fossil fuel clients will be conditioned on assessments of their Climate Transition Plans (CTPs).
Take action
Tell the big four banks these 23 blocklisted fossil fuel companies are now off limits – fund them at your own peril.
This should mean fossil fuel clients unable to objectively demonstrate emissions reductions and concrete fossil fuel phaseout plans consistent with the goals of the Paris Agreement should be ineligible for new or renewed finance
However this report finds that – like recent financing behaviour – the big fours’ CTP policies diverge: Commonwealth Bank and NAB show intent to use the policy to ditch fossil fuel companies misaligned with global climate goals, while ANZ and Westpac’s policies are little more than window dressing and greenwashing.
Regardless of whether a big four bank’s CTP approach is credible, once it assesses a fossil fuel client’s CTP the bank will know whether that company is aligned with the Paris Agreement. Financing a company the bank knows is not aligned with its stated climate commitments will invite intense scrutiny and heighten regulatory, legal and reputational risk.
Critically, banks do not disclose client identities or announce when they participate in fossil fuel financing deals, making public scrutiny difficult.
Market Forces is actively monitoring the banks’ financing behaviour and will hold them to account for any deals that breach their climate commitments.
Key findings
Since 2016, ANZ, Commonwealth Bank, NAB and Westpac have provided AU$43.4 billion in finance to 96 fossil fuel companies on the Global Coal, Oil and Gas Exit Lists (Exit List companies), having loaned ~$39.9 billion and arranged over $3.5 billion in bond financing.
From 1 October 2025, ANZ, NAB and Westpac require certain fossil fuel companies to have climate transition plans in place (Commonwealth Bank has had this policy in place since 2024). Market Forces has compiled a ’Fossil Fuel Company Blocklist’ of 23 existing clients to which the banks should not provide any further finance to, due to these companies’ substantial coal, oil and gas expansion plans.
Continued financing of any company on the Blocklist is a contravention of the banks’ commitments to the climate goals of the Paris Agreement.
ANZ is the biggest funder of fossil fuels among Australian banks, having loaned or arranged over $15.9 billion for Exit List companies in the last decade.
From 2024 the big four diverged: ANZ and Westpac stand out as Australia’s fossil fuel banks, funding fossil fuel expansion as CommBank and NAB slash finance for coal, oil and gas.
Since 1 January 2024, ANZ and Westpac accounted for over 80% of lending and 75% of total finance to Exit List companies of all big four banks.
ANZ and Westpac are the biggest financiers of Exit List companies since 2022. ANZ has provided $5.7 billion in loans and bond finance, while Westpac has financed the world’s major fossil fuel companies to the tune of $3.8 billion. ANZ and Westpac together account for 71% of financing to coal, oil and gas by the big four banks since 2022.
Commonwealth Bank only accounts for 6% of total financing to Exit List companies since the beginning of 2022. While Commonwealth Bank came in second over the last decade, the vast majority of this financing occurred in the first six years following the Paris Agreement, with a sharp decline in the last three and a half years.
NAB’s total financing (bonds and loans) of Exit List companies has fallen from 43% of all big four financing in 2021 to 17% in 2024, further reducing to just 9% in 2025 (as of 1 September). NAB’s Chair Philip Chronican has publicly indicated that companies expanding fossil fuels will be ineligible for further finance from 1 October, but NAB’s recent support for companies like oil and gas producer Santos make it unclear if its words will match its actions.
Commonwealth Bank’s requirement for fossil fuel companies to disclose credible Paris-aligned climate transition plans has been in effect since 2024 with profound impacts on its financing activity. The bank’s lending exposure to companies producing and exploring for oil and gas (upstream) has dropped by 75% in the last three years.
ANZ and Westpac are yet to demonstrate that their climate transition plan requirements will have any impact on their financing of companies responsible for fossil fuel expansion. Companies including Woodside, Santos, JERA, APA Group, GE Vernova, Siemens Energy, BHP, Glencore, BP, and San Miguel Corporation have all received financial support from ANZ and Westpac in recent years, including significant deals in recent months.
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