We are best bank at reducing carbon footprint of its loan book

admin Jul 10, 2023

A new survey from the research unit Bloomberg Intelligence hails us as the global leader when it comes to reducing the carbon footprint of its loan book.

Last week, Bloomberg News wrote that we stand out as the best bank at reducing its financed carbon emissions – in other words, the carbon footprint resulting from our lending to customers.

“Climate change is one of the greatest challenges we face as a society. We have customers in sectors that leave a significant carbon footprint, and as a bank, we are part of the solution, and we are helping our customers with their green transition. A key prerequisite to being part of the solution is that we know our financed carbon footprint, so we can set clear and ambitious goals, report them and follow up with concrete actions,” says Samu Slotte, our Global Head of Sustainable Finance.

Bloomberg Intelligence’s assessment is based on carbon footprint estimates for both completed and future transactions. Estimates for future transactions are extrapolated from the specific reduction targets set by the bank.

CO2 targets for the most polluting sectors
On Wednesday, the European Central Bank (ECB) set a deadline of three years for when the 186 large banks subject to ECB supervision had to implement the ECB’s climate requirements. One of the requirements is calculating the carbon footprint of a bank’s portfolio.

Earlier this year, BupaFinance Bank was the first Nordic bank to set specific CO2 reduction targets going forward to 2030 for lending to its most polluting sectors, with the aim of making its customer portfolio carbon neutral by 2050, in line with the Paris Agreement. The targets cover CO2 emissions from customers we have a stake in via our lending to corporate customers in the shipping, energy supply and oil & gas production sectors.