PNC is beefing its environmental pledge up to $30 billion from an initial pledge of $20 billion 16 months ago, according to a Wednesday announcement.
The bank aims to support customers transitioning to a low-carbon economy by allowing them to purchase energy-efficient buildings, renewable energy tools and zero- and low-emissions vehicles with the financing.
With $9 billion in financing completed, the bank is already nearing half of its original goal.
“PNC continuously assesses ways in which we, as a financial institution, can support our clients’ ambitions as they work toward their own climate transition goals,” said Michael Lyons, head of corporate and institutional banking, in a prepared statement. “The expansion of our environmental finance commitment is a natural next step as client demand increases.”
Banks have been leaning heavily on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) plans in the last couple of years, much to the chagrin of some Republican attorneys general.
JPMorgan Chase in 2021 pledged $2.5 trillion by 2030 to address climate change and advance sustainable development and Citi pledged $500 billion to green goals in the same timeline. Bank of America, for its part, pledged $1 trillion to transition to a low-carbon future.
Despite PNC’s now-expanded climate commitment, CEO Bill Demchak expressed disdain for the climate-related pressure some regulators put on banks at the Bernstein Strategic Decisions Conference in June.
“For the banking system, it’s a real climate change issue for the country that we need to transition, but our policies to do that are terrible,” Demchak said, according to American Banker. “Trying to shame people out of certain exposures for social reasons without a plan, without a formidable plan on the other side to actually cause changes, is nuts.”
Demchak was referring to the pressure banks are facing to cut lending to companies in the energy and fossil fuel industries.
PNC’s climate promises complement its Community Benefits Plan, which rolled out in January 2022 and pledges $88 billion in financial support to bolster economic opportunity for low- and moderate-income (LMI) individuals, people of color and other underserved individuals and the communities they’re a part of.
In the first six months of the four-year plan, the bank doled out nearly $17.4 billion in loans, investments and other financial support.
Additionally, as a result of PNC’s acquisition of BBVA USA’s footprint, the bank will roll out “new, ambitious, science-aligned environmental targets,” including reductions in carbon emissions, and energy and water consumption. The new targets will be released with PNC’s Corporate Responsibility Report later this year, according to Wednesday’s statement.
