METHODOLOGY
The Oil & Gas Policy Tracker rates the oil and gas sector policies of financial institutions on a consistent and transparent scoring grid built upon four key criteria.
Who does the Oil & Gas Policy Tracker assess?
The Oil & Gas Policy Tracker covers all the biggest banks, (re)insurers, asset owners and asset managers from 34 countries, from Australia to the United States.
As of September 2024, are included in the tracker:
- The top 100 banks according to “The world’s 100 largest banks‘‘ ranking (Standard & Poor’s, 2023). The top 60 banks are also assessed in the Banking on Climate Chaos 2023 report;
- The top 30 insurers covered in the 2023 Scorecard on Insurance, Fossil Fuels & Climate Change (their insurance and investment activities are both covered separately);
- The top 70 asset owners according to “The Asset Owner 100” ranking (Thinking Ahead Institute, Willis Tower Watson, 2022), with seven OCIOs not included;
- The top 100 asset managers according to “The world’s largest asset managers” ranking (Thinking Ahead Institute, Willis Tower Watson, 2022);
- The largest French financial institutions;
Some financial institutions fall into more than one of the above categories.
What does the Oil & Gas Policy Tracker assess?
Reclaim Finance assesses all types of public documents issued by financial institutions: these may include oil and gas policies, ESG frameworks, investment policies, disclosure reports, press releases, specific pages of a website, etc. Links to public documents are available in the Oil & Gas Policy Tracker, in the analysis dedicated to each financial institution
Policies only applying to SRI/ESG funds are not considered in this analysis, except if they are the only ones proposed by the investor
All financial players mentioned in the Oil & Gas Policy Tracker were contacted and had an opportunity to comment on their ratings before publication. These messages led to discussions with the majority of financial institutions covered in the tracker.
Oil and gas policies are rated according to four criteria
For the first three main criteria, the scoring system is based on a score from 0 to 10 and a traditional color code (red, orange, yellow, green), to quickly identify the quality of the policies with regard to the assessed criteria.
For unconventional oil and gas, the scoring system is based on a score from 0 to 4, also with a traditional color code (gray, red, orange, yellow, green).
Many policies allow exceptions, use inappropriate metrics or weaken the impact of criteria by limiting their application to certain activities. In these cases, a penalty of one or two points is applied for each criterion to sanction these limitations and loopholes.
Special mark-ups and indicators are used to provide additional information.
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The complete analysis grid is available below the Oil & Gas Policy Tracker.
#1 Projects
This criterion covers the immediate exclusion of financial services dedicated to oil and gas upstream and midstream projects.
#2 Expansion companies
This criterion addresses the exclusion of all financial services to companies with oil and gas expansion plans.
#3 Phase-out
This criterion rates the quality of oil and gas phase-out commitments (considering both medium-term and long-term commitments).
#4 Unconventional sectors
Focusing on shale oil and gas, tar sands, Arctic and ultradeep water oil and gas, this rating considers project-level and company-level exclusions, and the phase-out strategy for each specific unconventional sector.
Disclaimer
Despite our best efforts, inaccuracies may have appeared in our tracker and we may have missed an existing commitment. Feel free to contact us: contact@oilgaspolicytracker.org, we will make every effort to address your feedback and make any necessary correction.
