StanChart Says It’s ‘Not Practical’ to Halt Fossil Finance

Bill Winters, the chief executive officer of Standard Chartered Plc, says it’s unreasonable to expect banks to stop financing the fossil-fuel industry, in part because to do so would undermine transition efforts, particularly in the emerging markets.

“We can’t have simple edicts like: No more fossil fuels. It’s just not practical,” Winters said in an interview Tuesday with Bloomberg Television. “We’re going to be dependent on fossil fuels for the next 15 or 20 years, unless there’s some miraculous technology breakthrough.”