Great Britain: NatWest to train more than 16,000 employees on climate issues

On 11 April, UK’s NatWest Group, which owns the NatWest and RBS banking networks, announced the signing of a partnership with the University of Edinburgh Centre for Business, Climate Change and Sustainability. The £1.5 million (€1.79 million) contract will provide climate training to more than 16,000 employees, including managers and customer advisors, by the end of 2024. Development of the 12-week e-learning course will be spearheaded by NatWest and the university, and its content will be augmented with input from specialist companies on certain topics. The aim is to train employees to both lower the environmental impact of their own processes and to guide customers towards greener approaches. “Climate education across the bank is central to us reaching our climate ambitions and the UK’s move to a net zero economy,” stated James Close, Head of Climate Change, NatWest Group. “This specialist training will provide the confidence for colleagues to step into climate conversations both within the bank and with customers,” he added. By 2021, NatWest had already trained more than 13,000 people on green topics that focused on climate awareness, climate change and agriculture. This time round, the focus will be on corporate property, retail, industry, and leisure.