A group of about a dozen people gathered on the footpath near the Commonwealth Bank’s Pender Place branch in protest of the bank’s connection to coal projects in Australia. Security prevented the group entering the shopping centre car park. 

The demonstration was one of several organised around the country this week under the auspice of Greenpeace Australia.

It followed on from a protest on Kooragang Island on Monday, where 15 people were arrested. A group entered Newcastle Coal Infrastructure Group’s loader to unfurl a 75-metre banner declaring “Commbank’s Coal Kills”. 

Greenpeace member and protester Jan Davis said the aim of the Maitland protest was to educate people about Commonwealth Bank’s ties to mining projects.

“We’re hoping to draw the attention of Maitland people to the fact that the Commonwealth Bank is one of the worst offenders as far as loaning money to dirty fossil fuel projects,” she said.

“Commonwealth Bank has funded more fossil fuels since the Paris Agreement in December 2015 than any other bank.

“They’re the biggest bank funding the biggest damage.”

Environmental activist group Market Forces claimed earlier this year that the Commonwealth Bank loaned $3.89 billion to the fossil fuel industry in 2016, which was the most of the big four banks.

“[Commonwealth Bank] signed on to the Paris Agreement, so it’s in breach of its promise,” Ms Davis said.

The aim of the Paris Agreement was to limit global temperature increase and lower greenhouse gas emissions.

The protesters said funding coal would have, and was already having, an adverse affect on weather conditions.

“It’s the future that will go down in a blaze of heat,” protester Wendy White said.

Ms Davis said she hoped local people would divest from the Commonwealth Bank and instead support smaller local building societies.

A Commonwealth Bank spokesperson said the bank supported nearly every sector in the economy, including renewable energy.

“We have been lending to renewable energy projects since 2004, and as at December 2016 our current lending was $2.3 billion,” the spokesperson said. 

“This is five times our lending to coal-fired power generation and an increase on the $1.7 billion in lending to renewable projects a year earlier.”

“Strict environmental, social and governance standards are incorporated into our business-lending decisions and we will only fund projects that meet these standards.”