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Standard Chartered to offer US$300 billion for green, transition financing as part of net zero plan
- Standard Chartered to reduce emissions associated with lending to carbon-intensive sectors, such as oil and gas
- More than half of Standard Chartered’s markets have not adopted net zero plans
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Standard Chartered said it will deploy US$300 billion for green and transition financing in the next decade and simultaneously seek to cut the emissions associated with its lending to carbon-intensive sectors, such as oil and gas, as part of its efforts to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
The bank, one of Hong Kong’s three currency-issuing lenders, said on Thursday that it would stop financing companies expanding in thermal coal and would seek to reduce its absolute financed thermal coal-mining emissions by 85 per cent by 2030, on top of its existing ban on funding new or expanding coal-fired power plants.
By 2030, the London-based lender, which generates much of its revenue in Asia, will only provide financial services to clients who are less than 5 per cent dependent on revenue from thermal coal.
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All clients in power generation, metals and mining and oil and gas sectors will need to have a strategy in place by the end of next year to transition their business in line with the goals of limiting global warming under the 2015 Paris agreement, Standard Chartered said.
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“As we reduce the emissions associated with our financing activities to net zero, we will also tackle financial barriers to the transition, including by making more green and transition finance available,” Standard Chartered CEO Bill Winters said in a statement. “This will help clients on a path to net zero while maximising the benefits of a just transition for people and communities.”
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Net zero, also known as carbon neutrality, is achieved when emissions are offset by deploying facilities to capture and store the same amount from the atmosphere.
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