Westpac is ruling out financing for Adani's planned Carmichael mine, citing a new climate policy that would limit lending for new thermal coal projects to "only existing coal producing basins".

The Galilee Basin in Queensland is Australia's last untapped resource. 

The new policy statement also reads, "Our lending to customers in the thermal coal sector is limited to those that have a calorific value which ranks in the top quartile globally."  That means a project must produce at least 6,300 kilocalories per kilogram; Adani already said the mine would produce only 4,950 kilocalories per kilogram.

Green activists are encouraged by Westpac's decision.

"After months of community pressure, Westpac's announcement is a strong indication that people everywhere are ready to stop this climate disaster in its tracks and that Adani and our government ignore them at their peril," said Blair Palese, the chief executive of climate advocacy group 350.org.

"It in effect rules out funding for Adani and any new coal regions in Australia," said Tim Buckley of the Institute for Energy Economics.  "Limiting lending to the Newcastle benchmark ensures that funding is restricted to the highest quality coal.  Westpac's now set the standard for all other banks to follow."