Commonwealth Bank boss Ian Narev has fired back at politicians over their inaction on climate change.
Mr Narev was quizzed about the bank's environmental policies at a parliamentary hearing in Canberra on Tuesday, grilled on why it does not take rising sea levels into account when considering the value of homes in low-lying areas.
"Even in our political environment people cannot agree on what the appropriate policies might be relating to the environment," he said.
"As a major bank it's very difficult for us to be the instrument of implementing climate policy," Mr Narev said.
Greens MP Adam Bandt was asking why it wasn't considered, given the bank's claim that it has updated internal policies based on the two degree Paris Agreement target.
He insisted the bank would face criticism if it did start devaluing people's homes on that basis.
"We lend to houses right across bushfire zones and again if we weren't to do that, I think you'd be hearing a lot of different conversations around this committee," he said.
Mr Narev insisted the bank was constantly reviewing its loans to factor in its environmental principles, revealing they had been the sole reason why otherwise viable loans had not been made or rolled over.
"There have been loans which we have decided not to take or not to renew solely on the basis that they don't comply with our own policies and processes regarding ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance risk) and the Equator Principles," he said.
"Our exposure to renewables at the moment is about five times our exposure to coal."
The bank had a $2.3 billion exposure to renewables, he said.
The Equator Principles (EPs) are a risk management framework for managing environmental and social risk in projects, adopted by 89 banks in 37 countries.
