Nedbank makes pioneering ‘zero fossil-fuel exposure by 2045’ pledge

South Africa’s Nedbank Group released an ambitious new energy policy on April 22, containing a commitment to reduce its exposure to all fossil fuels to zero by 2045, as well as a pledge to halt all new thermal coal-mine financing by January 1, 2025. Simultaneously, Nedbank said it would scale up its renewable-energy commitments, announcing a target for R2-billion-worth of embedded-generation financing by 2022, in addition to the R50-billion limits already committed to South Africa’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme, which resumed this month following a seven-year interruption.