Demonstrators are targeting Tauranga's Westpac branch today as part of a nationwide focus on the bank's environment record.

The Coal Action Network and 350 Aotearoa are staging a dump Denniston demonstration outside the Devonport Road branch at 12pm today as part of a week of demonstrations around the country telling Westpac to stop financing Australian coal mining company Bathurst Resources.

Demonstrators will gather outside Wesptac on Devonport Road at midday.

Bathurst Resources plans to begin open cast coal mining on the Denniston Plateau on the South Island's West Coast, and Westpac is a large funder of this project, says Coal Action Network spokesperson Melanie Caldwell.

'While Westpac says they've put sustainability at the heart of their operations, they are still financing the coal industry,” says Melanie.

'That is not sustainable in any sense of the word. We're asking them to stop funding all foreign coal companies.”

'The irony is that Westpac's website states; ‘…we're always looking for ways to minimise our environmental impact. Our commitment to the environment covers our own operations as well as the impact of our products and services.”

350 Aotearoa and Coal Action Network Aotearoa met with members of Westpac's sustainability team last week in Wellington. Despite receiving more than 1200 letters protesting Westpac financing a coal mine, the bank will not stop financing Bathurst Resources.

The bank representatives couldn't give one example of how the bank has applied its climate change policy to a finance or loan decision reducing their contribution to climate change, say Melanie.

'We're here to ask them if their policies are all greenwash, or if they're going to stop bankrolling climate change. We are now taking our demand to their branches around New Zealand,” says Melanie.

'Customers of Westpac and the public will keep asking questions of Westpac until they either stop financing Bathurst Resources, or stop making claims that Westpac does business sustainably. Customers won't put up with being lied to.”

The demonstrators intend maintaining a peaceful presence to express their objections to and also educate Westpac's customers and the public on, the proposed mining of the Denniston Plateau.

Research by UK organization Carbon Tracker has found that 80 per cent of all fossil fuels listed on corporate balance sheets need to stay unburnt to avoid runaway climate change, says Melanie.

That means most of the world's coal needs to stay in the ground. And that, in turn, indicates that investing in the coal industry is economically unsustainable, as well as environmentally unsustainable. Coal is the biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions.