FRANKFURT, (Germany): Banks lent almost $470 billion to the coal industry between 2021 and 2023, according to a study published Thursday by German environmental group Urgewald, which criticised the scale of financing amid rising global temperatures.

Of the 638 banks surveyed, only 140 — or about one in five — had significantly reduced their exposure to the coal sector since 2016, the report found.

Some 75 banks by contrast saw their investments in coal increase in the same period, according to the study led by the German NGO and partner organisations.

Commercial banks were not reducing the amount they put into the coal industry at a rate sufficient to hit the Paris climate goal to limit global warming to 1.5C degrees above preindustrial times, Urgewald said. “Without an end to coal financing, it is difficult to imagine that we can get out of coal in time,” said Urgewald’s finance lead Katrin Ganswindt, calling for more regulation in the area.