- Fossil Free South Africa and the StopEACOP Coalition have challenged Standard Bank’s environmental advertising in a formal complaint.
- The complaint questions the bank’s commitments to net-zero emissions, renewable energy and environmental protection while it helps finance the East African Crude Oil Pipeline.
- The organisations want the advertising regulator to require evidence for the claims and changes to any representations found to be misleading or inadequately supported.
Standard Bank’s claims about sustainable finance and climate action are facing a formal challenge from civil society organisations questioning whether its environmental messaging accurately reflects the projects it finances.
The complaint was filed with the Advertising Regulatory Board (ARB) on 27 October 2026 by Fossil Free South Africa (FFSA), represented by Lawyers for Human Rights, together with the StopEACOP Coalition, an international coalition of frontline community organisations and civil society groups.
The organisations want the regulator to scrutinise the bank’s environmental claims in light of its involvement in financing the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP).
Bank’s sustainability claims challenged
The complaint targets environmental representations in Standard Bank’s Report to Society 2025, its climate-related financial disclosures and commercial advertising for its Energy Finance, Infrastructure Finance and Sustainable Finance services.
The complainants say the bank presents itself as a “leading provider of sustainable finance solutions” and a “leading enabler of Africa’s just energy transition”. Its communications also promote commitments to renewable energy, reducing fossil-fuel exposure, conserving water, protecting biodiversity and achieving net-zero financed emissions by 2050.
Kholwani Simelane, campaign coordinator and team lead at Fossil Free South Africa, said the complaint asks the regulator to test whether the bank’s public environmental image matches the projects it finances.
“We are asking the Advertising Regulatory Board to test whether the environmental image Standard Bank sells to the public can actually survive scrutiny against the reality of the projects it finances,” Simelane said.
He added that the bank wanted the public to associate its brand with renewable energy and a just transition while helping finance a major crude-oil pipeline through East Africa. The complaint argues that the bank’s environmental claims must be considered alongside its actual financing activities.
Pipeline’s emissions and environmental impact
EACOP is a 1,443km heated crude-oil pipeline designed to transport oil from Uganda’s oilfields to the Tanzanian coast for export.
The complaint cites projections of up to 34 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent annually at peak production and approximately 379 million tonnes across the project’s lifecycle. It also points to the pipeline’s route through 158 wetlands in Uganda, eleven rivers and dozens of protected or ecologically sensitive areas.
Communities affected by the project have reported land loss, economic displacement, disputes over compensation and threats to their livelihoods. Environmental and human rights defenders opposing the pipeline have also reportedly faced harassment, arrests and intimidation.
The complainants say more than 40 banks and 30 insurers internationally have distanced themselves from EACOP or adopted policies excluding the project or similar developments. They identify Absa, FirstRand, Nedbank and Investec among major South African financial institutions that have declined involvement.
Zaki Mamdoo, coordinator of the StopEACOP Coalition, said the consequences for communities along the pipeline route extended beyond corporate environmental messaging.
“Communities have lived with the consequences of this project through the loss of land and livelihoods, pressure on local ecosystems and the repression of those who have challenged it,” Mamdoo said. He argued that financial institutions promoting climate action and environmental protection should be accountable for the projects their financing enables.
Net-zero and water commitments questioned
The complaint questions how Standard Bank’s commitment to net-zero financed emissions by 2050 can be reconciled with its involvement in infrastructure expected to facilitate crude-oil production and transportation for decades.
It also challenges the bank’s assertion that EACOP meets the Equator Principles and International Finance Corporation (IFC) Performance Standards, asking Standard Bank to substantiate that claim.
The organisations further question how commitments to water conservation and environmental stewardship align with financing a pipeline that passes through or near extensive freshwater systems, including the Lake Victoria basin, on which tens of millions of people depend.
Brighton Aryampa, a Ugandan human and environmental rights lawyer working with communities affected by EACOP, said the complaint was about whether the bank’s overall environmental message was honest.
“This is not an argument that financing one fossil-fuel project automatically erases every renewable-energy investment Standard Bank makes. The question is whether the overall story being presented to the public is an honest one,” Aryampa said.
What the complaint asks the regulator to do
Under the ARB Code of Advertising Practice, environmental claims must be substantiated and must not mislead consumers through omission, ambiguity, inaccuracy or exaggeration.
The complainants want the regulator to scrutinise Standard Bank’s environmental advertising and require evidence supporting its claims about climate alignment, reducing fossil-fuel exposure and sustainable finance.
They are also seeking an order requiring the bank to amend, qualify or withdraw any representations found to be misleading, inadequately qualified or insufficiently substantiated.
The complaint asks the regulator to assess whether Standard Bank’s specific environmental claims are accurate and supported by evidence of its financing activities, including its involvement in EACOP.
Get your news on the go. Click here to follow the Conviction WhatsApp channel.
