PNC is beefing up its environmental pledge to $30 billion from an initial $20 billion commitment 16 months ago, the bank announced Wednesday.
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 nearing half of its original five-year 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," Michael Lyons, the bank’s head of corporate and institutional banking, said 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 past couple of years, much to the chagrin of several Republican attorneys general.
JPMorgan Chase in 2021 pledged $2.5 trillion by 2030 to address climate change and advance sustainable development. Citi, meanwhile, 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.
PNC CEO Bill Demchak in June expressed disdain for the way in which some regulators put pressure on banks.
“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 face to cut lending to companies in the energy and fossil fuel industries.
Additionally, as a result of PNC’s 2020-21 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.
