As miners at an industry event this week grappled with the idea that investors increasingly view coal as an addiction for the world to cure, another significant financial institution announced a policy to exclude coal and other fossil fuels from its business dealings.

Representatives of the mining sector who gathered at the MineXchange 2020 Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration's Annual Conference and Expo in Phoenix on Feb. 24 were lamenting the difficulty of financing a coal project amid climate concerns when news broke that JPMorgan Chase & Co. would distance itself from fossil fuels to address concerns about climate change.

JPMorgan's announcement adds the institution to a list of companies that includes financial giants such as Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and asset manager BlackRock Inc. that are rolling out policies aimed at reducing their exposure to fossil fuels.

While it is pushing investment into other sustainability-focused initiatives, JPMorgan plans to announce at its Feb. 25 investor day that it will no longer provide lending, capital markets or advisory services to companies that derive the majority of their revenues from extracting coal. By 2024, the bank intends to phase out all remaining credit exposure to such companies. The bank is also committing to restrictions on financing or refinancing for new or existing power plants without carbon capture and sequestration technology.

The Rainforest Action Network, which has identified JPMorgan as the world's No. 1 fossil fuel bank, said the policy is a step forward but called for further action to eliminate other investments in the space.

"In the context of the climate emergency, the biggest fossil bank in the world — by a 29% margin — has a unique responsibility to phase out its climate impact," said Jason Disterhoft, climate and energy senior campaigner with the Rainforest Action Network, in a news release. "Today's policy does not meet that responsibility."

Pressure on institutions that do not have any fossil fuel exclusionary policies in place are expected to increase, and those that have rolled out plans may still feel a push to do more. Already, the coal industry faces a "serious problem" when it comes to banks walking away from the sector, Northcott Capital LLC Managing Director Rick Reeves said at the conference.

"They think we're like the bloody tobacco industry, that we're selling death. That's not true," Reeves said during a presentation on coal financing trends. "Even mining journals say, 'Such and such country is kicking its addiction to coal.' It's like they're addicted to crystal meth or something. Coal is not crystal meth. Coal is energy."

Reeves said that for a long time, the coal industry has not wanted to talk about climate change but owes it to itself to get involved and change the conversation. He said there should be more emphasis on factors impacting the climate that are beyond human control rather than mostly focusing on greenhouse gas emissions.

"It's a discussion that's happening, whether we like it or not. The issue is, we face a situation in this country right now where we have a major political party that is basically committed to eliminating fossil fuels," Reeves said. "The industry needs to make the argument that climate change is not an issue of prevention, but it's an issue of human beings adapting to the changing world around them, which has been something human beings have to have to do for the entire time that they've been on this planet."

At another recent conference, one coal executive said trends toward environmentally conscious investing have "caught fire." The phenomenon is "slowly squeezing the entire coal industry like an anaconda," but could soon reach a tipping point, Benjamin Nelson, the lead coal analyst at Moody's Investors Service, recently said.

Even with some substantial players in the financial sector backing away from the coal industry, more prominent names in the coal sector have still been able to secure services. Peabody Energy Corp. recently noted that some investors have said they like to invest in the coal producer because some of their competitors cannot.

"There are literally thousands and thousands of investment firms and investment funds just around the United States, not to mention the world," Peabody spokesperson Vic Svec said in a recent interview for S&P Global Market Intelligence's Energy Evolution podcast. "So, from Peabody's perspective, we continue to reach out to those who are receptive to the larger story from an investment perspective."