The 2024 Banking on Climate Chaos report showed that Mizuho Financial provided US$ 272.477 Billion in financing to the fossil fuel industry between 2016 and 2023. In 2023 only, Mizuho Financial provided US$ 18.81 Billion for oil, gas and coal companies expanding fossil fuels. Find further details on Mizuho Financial fossil fuel portfolio and how it compares to other large banks globally on Fossil Banks No Thanks and in the Banking on Climate Chaos report.

Partner organisation Reclaim Finance tracks the coal, oil and gas policies of financial institutions, including banks, in their Coal Policy Tool (CPT) and the Oil and Gas Policy Tracker (OGPT). BankTrack works closely with Reclaim Finance and endorses their policy assessments. Find further details on their assessment of Mizuho's fossil fuel policy below.

BankTrack assessed Mizuho Financial Group in its 2022 Global Human Rights Benchmark, where it achieved 9 points out of 14 and was ranked as a front runner. In addition, Mizuho Financial Group scored 0.25 out of 3 on how it responds to alleged human rights violations linked to its finance, which were raised by civil society organisations. More information is detailed in the "Accountability" section of this profile.

Mizuho’s policies for forest-risk sectors (beef, soy, palm oil, pulp and paper, rubber and timber) have been assessed by the Forests & Finance coalition, achieving an overall score of 6.9 out of 10 and ranking it as a front runner. Mizuho achieved a score of 4.3 out of 10 specifically for its policies related to the beef sector and 7.5 out of 10 for its policies related to the palm oil sector.  In addition, BankTrack and the Environmental Paper Network have assessed Mizuho’s policies related to the pulp and paper sector.

Between 2016 and 2022, Mizuho provided USD 9,221 million in credit to companies operating in these forest-risk sectors and held investments amounting to USD 78 million as of 2022. For more information, see the links below.

Mizuho is a member of the Net Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA) and has therefore committed to reduce its financed emissions to net zero by 2050; within 18 months of joining the alliance set interim targets for 2030 (or sooner) for high emission priority sectors, and within 36 months set further sector targets; set new intermediary targets every 5 years from 2030 onwards; annually publish data on emissions and progress against a transition strategy including climate-related sectoral policies; and take a robust approach to the role of offsets in transition plans. BankTrack track's implementation of these commitments in the NZBA compliance tracker.

BankTrack is keeping track of the public response of Mizuho Financial Group to Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine. Mizuho Financial Group did not publicly condemn the war. Mizuho Financial Group is considered by Leave-Russia.org to be "continue operations"  in Russia. We consider its exposure to Russia as limited, with over $2.87 billion of financial assets. Mizuho Financial Group supports the Russian fossil fuel industry through investments, loans and underwriting. For further details, see the table linked below.

As part of the Net Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA), Mizuho is required to set interim targets for 2030 for high emission priority sectors. For Mizuho, this includes its lending to the steel sector. You can see Mizuho’s iron and steel decarbonisation targets, and its progress towards meeting them in our NZBA steel targets compliance tracker: