ING bank will not finance Canadian pipeline projects

ING Bank announced its decision to back away from financing major Canadian pipeline projects not long after Swedish pension fun AP7 sold its interests in the pipeline.  Trans Mountain photo.

ING Bank pressured by activists

Under pressure from activists, Dutch lender ING Groep NV says it will not finance any major Canadian pipeline projects, including Keystone XL, Energy East and Enbridge’s Line 3.

Earlier this month, ING publicly disavowed Kinder Morgan Canada Ltd’s Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion project, but did not name any other pending projects.

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ING has a policy of not financing the extraction of oilsands, but until now, had been unclear if that included Canadian pipelines.

The company says it wanted to clarify its position after being targeted in June by activists looking for the bank to not loan Kinder Morgan funds for the expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline.

“Processing oil sands is known to be energy intensive, producing significant greenhouse gas emissions,” the bank said in an undated statement this week on its website.

The message also said “This is in addition to potential social impacts, such as on the local native tribes historically using the land.”

According to Reuters, the bank could not immediately confirm when the post was added to its site.

The ING decision follows a similar move by the largest pension fund in Sweden, AP7.  The pension fund sold its investments in six companies this month that it says violates the Paris climate accord.  TransCanada was among the companies in which the fund liquidated its interests.

This month, a coalition of over 20 environmental and indigenous groups called on 28 banks to back away from Trans Mountain.

Not long after, Kinder Morgan Canada, announced it raised $5.5 billion in credit.  The largest lenders were four of Canada’s biggest banks.