Swiss Group Seeks to Ban Banks from New Fossil-Fuel Financing

(Bloomberg) -- A multi-party group of lawmakers and public figures plans to launch an initiative seeking to ban Swiss financial institutions from funding or insuring new fossil-fuel mining, newspaper Schweiz am Wochenende reported.

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The campaigners want to enshrine an “eco-friendly, sustainable orientation of the Swiss financial center” in the country’s constitution, according to the report published on Saturday. If they succeed in collecting 100,000 signatures for their cause, a national vote on the issue will be held within a few years.

Swiss banks and insurers should be prohibited from providing any services to tap new fossil-fuel deposits or expand the mining of existing ones, their proposal reads, according to the newspaper SaW. They want this to be enforced by a government authority.

The proponents — which include left, green, pro-business and conservative politicians — want to officially launch their campaign on Tuesday, the paper said.

While many banks subscribe to sustainability, their efforts often take a back seat if they clash with earnings targets. For example, UBS Group AG in March ditched a plan to phase out coal financing it had inherited from taking over Credit Suisse.

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