These major Swedish banks have stopped lending to the fossil fuel industry

Two of Sweden’s three biggest banks have stopped providing finance to the fossil fuel industry, a report compiled by BankTrack and other organisations has found.

The country’s largest bank by assets, Handelsbanken, has not approved any new loans or underwriting to fossil fuel companies since 2019, per the report, which looked at the nine major Nordic banks. Since the Paris Agreement was signed in 2015, Handelsbanken’s financing to coal, oil and gas groups has totalled just $0.4 billion.

Swedbank, meanwhile, slashed its lending to fossil fuel companies by 90% in the two years to mid-2024, relative to the prior two-year period. Its only transaction with the industry during that time was a small loan to Aker Solutions, an oil and gas service company, in the first half of 2023.

Since the Paris Agreement, Swedbank has provided $3.6 billion in finance to fossil fuel companies, with almost all of that provided before 2022.

The retreat from fossil fuel financing reflects Sweden’s broader decarbonisation push. In 2024, fossil fuels accounted for just 1% of the country’s electrical output as wind’s share of the mix climbed to 23% and nuclear retained a 29% share, per Ember data. In December 2024, wind accounted for 35% of Sweden’s power output, a new monthly record.

Yes, but: Both Swedbank and Handelsbanken still have equity and bond investments in some fossil fuel projects, including ones led by Shell and Chevron. And Sweden’s other major commercial bank, SEB, reduced its financing to the fossil fuel industry by just 1% in the two years to mid-2024.

The report recommends that regulators in the Nordic region take steps to “ensure that the financial sector becomes a catalyst for the transition away from fossil fuels”.

The authors say policymakers should ban all financing and investments in projects that expand coal, oil, and gas production, set minimum standards for banks’ transition plans, and raise capital requirements for all fossil fuel financing given the growing risk of holding stranded assets, among other measures.