Climate Transition in Emerging Economies
The Minister’s remarks on finding champions for climate transition are aligned to our bank’s areas of investment. This transition to a low-carbon environment presents potential challenges across the continent, including job transition, skills shortages and training requirements as technology and public policy change rapidly.
Our position is mindful of both the opportunities to partner with clients and stakeholders to support their climate transitions and the national climate commitments of the countries where we conduct business. Our Climate Policy, launched in March this year marked the culmination of years of hard work and the fulfilment of a commitment made at our 2021 AGM. The policy sets out progressive short, medium and long-term targets to reduce our contribution to carbon emissions and accelerate our sustainable finance commitments with a focus on renewable energy projects across Africa.
We have committed to achieving net zero carbon emissions from our own operations by 2040 and from our portfolio of financed emissions by 2050, aligned to the Paris Agreement. We will mobilise between R250 billion and R300 billion for sustainable finance across all banking products by the end of 2026. This target includes R50 billion of financing for renewable energy, and underwriting of a further R15 billion for renewable energy by the end of 2024.
