By Jane Fraser, CEO, Citi
The climate crisis is among the top critical challenges facing our global society and economy today and there is an urgent need for collective action.
We believe that global financial institutions like Citi have the opportunity – and the responsibility – to play a leading role in helping drive the transition to a net zero global economy and make good on the promise of the Paris Agreement.
https://twitter.com/Citi/status/1366417966280146948
From 2014 to 2019, we financed and facilitated $164 billion in low-carbon solutions and last year committed to completing an additional $250 billion in environmental transactions by 2025. We also reached our goal of purchasing 100% renewable electricity for our facilities.
Now we are taking the next bold step on this journey. We are committing to net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. I am proud to make this commitment on my first day as CEO of Citi.
Our ESG agenda can't just be a separate layer that sits above what we do day-to-day. Our commitments to closing the gender pay gap, to advancing racial equity, and to pioneering the green agenda have demonstrated that this is good for business and not at odds with it. And we will continue to be part of the solution to these challenges and enable others to do so as well.
Net zero means rethinking our business and helping our clients rethink theirs. For banks, what some don't realize is that net zero includes not just our own operations but also our core business impacts – in other words, our financing, which is why we're making the following commitments today:
- We will publish our initial Net Zero by 2050 plan within the next year.
- This plan will include emissions reduction targets for carbon-intensive sectors that also have low-carbon transition opportunities, including interim emissions targets for 2030 for our Energy and Power portfolios.
- Just as we've done in our efforts to advance pay equity, racial equity and our previous sustainability goals, we will report on our progress. We believe transparency and accountability are key to success.
- After an initial implementation period, we will review the scope of our net zero plan to assess which additional sectors to include and how best to incorporate additional areas of our business in a way that achieves meaningful emissions reductions in the real economy as part of a just transition.
- For our own operations, we are targeting net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.
We are raising the ambition on all that we've done until now – including our commitment to the Principles for Responsible Banking, our leadership in climate disclosure through the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) and our expanded fossil fuel sector standards.
As the world's most global bank, we are interconnected with many carbon-intensive sectors that continue to help drive global economic development. We are committed to bringing as many clients as we can along with us on this journey and working with them relentlessly to get it right. We also know that staying on this path and accomplishing this goal will require help from our full set of stakeholders – our clients, colleagues, investors, NGO partners, communities and especially policy makers, as durable climate policy is essential for enabling a net zero economy where we can all thrive.
Source: Citi
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