Under its £100 billion Climate and Sustainable Funding and Finance ambition, NatWest is now providing tools, via an online Climate Hub, to help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) go green.
Through the NatWest Climate Hub, eligible SMEs – investing in clean buildings, energy, transport, and agriculture – can access information on how to apply for green loans and green asset financing. The aim is to help combat climate change, by giving businesses the support needed to unlock sustainable projects and, ultimately, lower their emissions.
To overcome these barriers, the NatWest’s Climate Hub pools resources, products and services that serve to address the gaps detected in NatWest’s ‘Springboard to Sustainability’ report, and educate SMEs on the financial benefits of the net-zero transition.
Using the Hub, SMEs can access information on NatWest’s green loan and green asset financing solutions for SMEs; details on the bank’s accelerators, which connect SMEs with regional centres to help them identify business opportunities; as well as news on the pilot of NatWest’s carbon tracker app, due to launch February 2022, with 500 SMEs in the manufacturing and transport sectors.
Paul Thwaite, CEO of commercial banking, NatWest, comments: “Climate change is one of the biggest global challenges we face today, and SMEs have a critical role to play in helping the UK realise its green ambition. The reality is that while SMEs want to help by reducing emissions, they face many barriers doing so such as limited access to information, funding, and training.”
“Our ambition is to stand by small businesses of the UK to help them reduce emissions and explore the opportunities that a move towards a green economy brings for us all,” says Thwaite. “We cannot underestimate the power of small changes to make a big impact.”