The Inflation Reduction Act could change the way bankers invest in mining

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) that was signed into law by President Joe Biden in August includes $374 million committed to help accelerate the transition to clean energy. It could also mean much less financing to fossil fuels including coal.
Bloomberg reported that following an analysis of the IRA, Barclays Plc, one of Europe’s biggest coal financiers, said it will stop funding coal projects in the United States by 2030, five year earlier than it had planned. Chief Executive Officer C.S. Venkatakrishnan recently old shareholders of the banks plans.
Ian Simm, founder and CEO of sustainable investment firm Impax Asset Management told Bloomberg that the bill makes it “much easier for those in the finance sector to take a view on what can be backed and what can be profitable.”
UBS Group AG analysts predicted last month that the climate bill will rewrite the U.S. investment landscape, providing “an enormous amount of money coming down the pipes that will move markets.” That coincided with research from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. showing that investors have yet to appreciate the full scope of the IRA’s reach.
The bill, which also includes money to help retire coal plants, puts the U.S. on a path to slash its emissions and even helps keep alive a long-shot global goal of limiting warming to the critical threshold of 1.5 C.
Barclays’ new coal target for the U.S., which Venkatakrishnan said he expects to become official at the end of the year, would match its commitments in the UK and the European Union.