Citi to disclose loan portfolio CO2 as it pledges $250bn green spending blitz
Bank to report and disclose the emissions tied to its lending portfolios as it joins Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials (PCAF)
Investment bank Citi yesterday unveiled a raft of new measures geared at reducing its environmental impact, including plans to disclose the emissions tied to enormous lending portfolio and to spend $250bn over five years on sustainable technologies and activities.
The new funding pot will go towards financing and advancing initiatives such as clean technology, renewable energy, water quality and conservation, sustainable transportation, green buildings, energy efficiency, sustainable agriculture and land use, the bank said.
Citi, which has disclosed its emissions in line with the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TFCD) since 2018, said it would further boost its assessment of climate risk by measuring the climate impact of its own portfolios and their alignment with 1.5C and 2C warming scenarios.
The investment bank also revealed that it had joined the Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials (PCAF), which requires financial institutions to measure and disclose the emissions of lending portfolios.
Citi is the third largest lender to fossil fuel companies in the world, having shelled out $188bn to oil, gas and coal activities in the four years since the Paris Agreement, according to study published in March.
But Citi chief executive Michael Corbat predicted an acceleration towards a low-carbon economy as businesses shifted embraced sustainability in the wake of the pandemic.
"If there's one lesson to be learned from the Covid-19 pandemic, it is that our economic and physical health and resilience, our environment and our social stability are inextricably linked," he said. "ESG has been front and center in Citi's response to this health crisis, and evermore present in conversations with clients and partners. With our $250bn goal, we want to be a leading bank in driving the transition to a low-carbon economy, which we anticipate will accelerate as businesses of all kinds shift to a more sustainable future."
The bank confirmed that it expects to meet its goal of sourcing 100 per cent renewable electricity to power its global facilities before the end of 2020, noting that its global headquarters in New York were recently awarded LEED Platinum certification, the gold standard for energy and green building design.
It is now targeting 45 per cent reduction in carbon emissions by 2025, noting that efforts to date had slashed 3,600WGh of energy use and avoided 2.4 million MTC02e of greenhouse gases since 2005.
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