Going green could create £ 160 billion and 130,000 jobs, says NatWest boss


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Alison Rose has a packed itinerary for the next two weeks – and one topic dominates her schedule: climate change.

While the rest of the country worries about soaring gasoline prices, a shortage of truck drivers and warnings of a Christmas gift shortage, the head of NatWest prepares for two global summits in London and Glasgow to tackle the carbon emissions crisis.

On Tuesday, Rose will address the Prime Minister and 200 of the world’s most revered business giants at the Science Museum in London on Tuesday, detailing how businesses and families can turn the climate crisis into a great opportunity.

New paper: Alison Rose at Harvest London, which is funding NatWest, to use 95 percent less water and no pesticides

Rose says she is well aware that tackling global carbon emissions is low on their priority lists for many of NatWest’s 19 million customers. But she firmly believes that businesses and households that grab the nettles and act now can benefit. “Sometimes the scale of the problem can feel so big and frightening that it’s almost easier to say that I can’t possibly influence it Rose told The Mail on Sunday in her first major newspaper interview since she got the top job at NatWest. “Of course there’s a lot on people’s minds – if you’re a parent, for example, think about trying to take your kids to school, take them to lateral flow tests, and get yourself to work.

“But we looked at the opportunities for small businesses and it could create £ 160 billion in revenue and 130,000 jobs,” she says of the transition to a greener economy. And she adds that the government has already passed legislation: “If you look at the legislation, the decision has been made – we’re moving to net zero, these changes are coming. Diesel cars will expire in 2030. Coal will be withdrawn from circulation. So now you have to start taking action. ‘

Many of her customers – and the army of small shareholders in NatWest – would be forgiven for wondering what on earth cares for Rose. Surely the most important consideration for a giant bank like yours is to make money and not preach to customers about environmental issues? Is this just a marketing ploy?

Rose firmly rejects this. She says the government is committed to “net zero” by 2050, which means removing as much carbon dioxide as is being pumped into the atmosphere. Above all, this requires a whole range of new infrastructures, from charging points for electric vehicles to new heating systems for homes.

Rose has already pledged £ 100 billion over five years to help customers take advantage of these types of projects and reduce their own emissions.

The bank already offers so-called green mortgages for households, which offer borrowers better interest rates for energy-efficient new buildings and hopes to bring more “green” products onto the market in the future. Rose sees the Green Change as an opportunity to increase the bank’s lending – and thus profits – and at the same time to have a positive impact on the environment.

“Of course we are a commercial company, but we also help our customers with the transition,” she says. “We know that climate change is a problem. Our job is to translate this really scary, big topic that we are all worried about into something that you can do in a really easy way. ‘

Rose also recognizes that banks are hard to come by with a clean track record of carbon emissions. Just last week, the billion dollar hedge fund tycoon Chris Hohn – the former city boss of German Chancellor Rishi Sunak – raised the alarm because banks were financing fossil fuel projects. In a letter to the Bank of England, the head of Children’s Investment Fund Management said lenders should be required to detail the size of their carbon footprint funding.

Rose admits that there is still much to be done and is committed to halving NatWest-funded CO2 emissions by 2030.

“We’re a really big lender to the agricultural sector, which is vital to the country, but which accounts for 19 percent of our emissions funding,” she says. “That’s why we’re working with the Farmers Union and supermarkets like Tesco on supply chains to fund this transition.” She adds that the bank now only finances companies with a clear plan to move from fossil fuels to more renewable energy sources.

Rose has put climate change at the heart of her strategy since she became CEO of NatWest in 2019. She tied the bonuses of her senior bankers to climate-related goals – and to her own salary.

When Rose took the baton from Ross McEwan, she became the first female boss of a major British high street lender. The 52-year-old previously headed the Commercial and Private Banking division at NatWest after joining the bank as a trainee in 1992.

We’ll meet in her office on 250 Bishopsgate, an imposing glass tower with a view of the city. The sparsely decorated room on the same floor as that of the bank’s chairman, Sir Howard Davies, is dominated by a huge rectangular table where Rose regularly meets with her top team.

We fly through small talk about the burden of getting their two children to take Covid tests – “I have to chase them around the house” – before moving on to the controversial topic of NatWest’s tainted reputation for small business lending. The bank’s now infamous Global Restructuring Unit (GRG) has been found to have mistreated thousands of customers, bringing many to the brink of collapse, following the 2007-2008 financial crisis. Rose admits the bank abandoned its customers at the time, but insists that all of its efforts are now focused on helping small businesses as many struggle to get away from the supply chain disruption and rising inflation Pandemic recover.

She says, “We know we didn’t get it right with GRG and that mistakes were made. It’s really tough when you’re running a business, and not every business is going to survive. What we have to do is make sure we support companies during this time. ‘

Rose reveals that she often spends time with business and personal clients during the week to make sure she keeps an eye on their needs and concerns. She even takes customer letters home to read over the weekend. The latest challenge facing the bank’s millions of borrowers is a potential rate hike to curb inflation. City dealers assume that the betting odds could increase to 0.5 percent by March, compared to 0.1 percent today. It would mean that mortgage rates would go up for those with variable businesses and NatWest could potentially add hundreds of millions of pounds of extra income.

So will the bank pass some of that cash boost on to savers in the form of better returns on their deposits?

It’s good news. Rose says, “It will be great to get more interest on your savings, so if interest goes up, [we’re] make sure we do that. ‘ However, she warns that an increase in savings rates will hardly offset the rising cost of living for large parts of the population.

“Over 40 percent of the people in this country have no savings” [above £100],’ She says. “So if you think of the price of petrol going up, it’s not particularly resilient to your finances.”

One customer less prone to rising inflation is the Queen. Rose will attend a reception at the Science Museum after the summit on Tuesday, hosted by Her Majesty – a longtime customer of Coutts, part of NatWest – at Windsor Castle. Is Rose hoping to meet her bank’s most prestigious client? One thing that is not currently on this hectic itinerary, she jokes: “I’ll be sure to see you across the room – but yes, of course I would be very honored.”

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