This policy briefing accompanies ShareAction’s In Debt to the Planet 2025 report, which ranks the climate, biodiversity and Indigenous People's rights policies of 25 of Europe’s largest banks. It focuses on the 19 EU-based banks covered in the survey and outlines the regulatory and supervisory measures needed to put the sector on a credible path to decarbonisation.

While some banks continue to set new sustainability targets, overall progress remains slow, uneven, and in some cases has reversed. EU banks are still financing fossil fuel expansion, contributing to the buildup of climate risks and therefore jeopardising financial stability. The briefing sets out how EU policymakers can fix this, by strengthening mandatory transition plan requirements, tightening prudential rules to reflect climate risks, and ensuring banks and investors rapidly shift capital away from harmful activities and towards a resilient, sustainable EU economy.