Triodos Bank launched a renewed energy vision today, including its approach to financing the energy transition. The bank prioritises financing of energy storage, local electricity grids, energy efficiency and circular supply chains, while maintaining exclusions for the fossil fuel industry, nuclear power and non-green hydrogen.
Triodos Bank highlights the importance of financing models that support community energy, decentralised ownership and projects that improve affordability and resilience, particularly for households facing energy poverty. The bank pays close attention to demand side solutions, such as energy efficient buildings, sustainable mobility and systems that reduce energy use rather than simply making it marginally more efficient.
Ten years, one percent
To underline why these sharper financing choices and a stronger focus on cutting demand are urgent, the bank warns that fossil fuels still dominate the global energy system and that the transition remains far off track. This is essential ahead of the First Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels in Santa Marta Colombia, co-hosted by the Netherlands. Large flows of public and private finance continue to support fossil fuels, locking in emissions and delaying change. In 2013, fossil fuels made up about 81% of the world’s energy supply. A decade later, that number only dropped to around 80%.
Concrete national phase-out policies needed after ‘Santa Marta’
“This percentage makes one thing clear: we cannot call this a phase-out yet,” says Jacco Minnaar, CCO at Triodos Bank. “We have picked much of the low hanging fruit in the energy transition, but the harder transformation, reducing structural dependence on fossil fuels across heating, industry, transport and consumption, still lies ahead. At the start of this essential conference in Colombia, Triodos Bank stresses that global ambition must be matched by concrete national phase-out policies and financial signals that make the transition predictable, affordable and socially just.”
Four pillars for accelerating the energy transition
In the vision paper, the bank also sets out how the global energy transition must move beyond incremental change and deliver a clean, reliable, independent and fair energy system. Replacing fossil fuels with renewables alone is not enough. The next phase of the energy transition must also address rising energy demand, use of scarce materials, grid resilience and social fairness.
Triodos Bank outlines four interconnected actions that together define what a successful energy transition requires:
- Clean supply: scaling renewable energy while protecting biodiversity and strengthening responsible supply chains.
- Reliable supply: investing in storage, grid flexibility and resilient infrastructure to support a renewables based system.
- Demand reduction: addressing rebound effects and reducing overall energy and material use, particularly in advanced economies.
- Fair and inclusive access: ensuring affordability, local ownership and access to clean energy for households and communities worldwide.
The bank emphasises that progress on one pillar depends on progress in all others, and that finance and public policy play a decisive role in aligning these elements.
A call for consistent policies and system change
Alongside its financing role in the energy transition, Triodos Bank also calls for consistent, long term policy frameworks that provide clarity for households, businesses and investors. The bank warns that policy inconsistency, for example in residential heating and energy taxation, creates uncertainty that slows down investment and locks people into fossil based choices. Public policy should make clean energy affordable, support local communities, make polluters pay their true cost and set clear end dates for fossil fuels.
