Themen:
Media Release
May 6, 2026
Deutsche Bank today announced a new implementation timeline for specific elements of its approach to thermal coal. This reflects the increasingly complex regulatory environment as well as differing speeds of energy transition in various regions beyond what was anticipated by Deutsche Bank in 2023.
As externally communicated, the bank requires credible transition plans from clients in scope of the guideline to access financing (lending and capital markets). While existing clients were originally required to present such plans by the end of 2025, they will now have to do so by the end of 2027 and ensure that the revenue share from thermal coal business falls below 50% by then. For new clients, such plans continue to be a precondition to access financing.
These transition plans have to outline the exit from thermal coal business by 2030 for companies headquartered in OECD countries. For clients in non-OECD countries the thresholds are 30% thermal coal revenue share by 2030 and a complete exit by 2040.
The new timeline is intended to ensure that the application of the approach continues to be aligned with the highly dynamic and partly disruptive regulatory environment as well as with Deutsche Bank’s ambition to be a reliable transition partner to mitigate climate risks.
Apart from this, Deutsche Bank continues to prohibit the financing of new and material expansion of existing thermal coal-fired power plants as well as thermal coal mining projects or the associated infrastructure.
The bank continues to execute its decarbonization approach, including the previously communicated net zero pathways. In the coal mining sector (thermal and metallurgical coal), financed Scope 3 emissions were already reduced by 33% by end 2025 compared with the 2022 base year; the bank continues to target a 49% reduction by 2030 and 97% reduction by 2050. Total credit commitments to clients in the coal mining sector remained stable at € 1.2 billion at end 2025, while total credit commitments based on coal revenue dependency declined slightly year on year to € 0.2 billion.
About Deutsche Bank
Deutsche Bank provides retail and private banking, corporate and transaction banking, lending, asset and wealth management products and services as well as focused investment banking to private individuals, small and medium-sized companies, corporations, governments and institutional investors. Deutsche Bank is the leading bank in Germany with strong European roots and a global network.
Forward-looking statements
This release contains forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts; they include statements about our beliefs and expectations and the assumptions underlying them. These statements are based on plans, estimates and projections as they are currently available to the management of Deutsche Bank. Forward-looking statements therefore speak only as of the date they are made, and we undertake no obligation to update publicly any of them in light of new information or future events.
By their very nature, forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. A number of important factors could therefore cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement.
Such factors include the conditions in the financial markets in Germany, in Europe, in the United States and elsewhere from which we derive a substantial portion of our revenues and in which we hold a substantial portion of our assets, the development of asset prices and market volatility, potential defaults of borrowers or trading counterparties, the implementation of our strategic initiatives, the reliability of our risk management policies, procedures and methods, and other risks referenced in our filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Such factors are described in detail in the most recent SEC Form 20-F under the heading “Risk Factors”. Copies of this document are readily available upon request or on the investor website.
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