Royal Bank of Scotland : NatWest agrees green finance deal with South West Water

Peter Dooley, Head of UK Energy and Utilities for NatWest, commented on the deal: 'We have worked with South West Water for a number of years and are delighted to have been able to support them by bringing sustainable principles into their core banking facilities.

'We are committed to becoming a more sustainable bank and supporting the UK's ambition to become a low carbon economy is an important part of this.'

The deal follows the bank's recent roles on the green bond for SSE and Thames Water and last week's announcement on new energy financing policies to support low carbon transition.

RBS now has sector-leading expertise in sustainable energy financing and has funded more British renewable energy projects than any other UK bank in the last six years.

There is growing interest in the role banks can play in tackling climate change. Energy supplies are changing rapidly as coal becomes a declining part of the mix and attention turns to cleaner forms of energy to support the Paris Climate Agreement and national targets. In March, RBS announced it was committing to provide £10bn of funding to the sustainable energy sector between 2018 and 2020 and that 80% of its energy project financing went to renewables in 2017.