RBS’ carbon footprint up

FINANCING “dirty” energy around the world could make the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) responsible for almost a billion tonnes of carbon emissions last year, according to a damning new report published today.

RBS headquarters at Gogar, on the outskirts of Edinburgh. Picture: TSPL

Research by the World Development Movement calculated that including emissions from all the coal, oil and gas companies which RBS lent money to in 2012 would bring the bank’s annual carbon footprint to up to 911 million tonnes of carbon dioxide. This is 18 times greater than Scotland’s total annual emissions and 1.6 times the level of greenhouse gases produced by the entire UK in 2012.

It is also more than 1,000 times the bank’s previously reported 2012 figure of around 630,000 tonnes, which only included emissions directly produced by RBS through its use of fossil fuels for electricity and business travel.

But RBS questions the validity of the research.