Our Climate Strategy
We are committed to driving Africa’s growth in an inclusive and sustainable manner, supporting a just energy transition.
Our purpose is to drive Africa’s growth. We aim to do this in a sustainable and inclusive way. This means that we strive to have a positive impact through our business on important aspects of Africa’s development like education, infrastructure, financial inclusion and other UN Sustainable Development Goals. It also requires that we reduce the negative impacts of our business on the environment and society. Climate change is an important issue with implications for Africa’s growth. As the largest bank on the continent, we have the opportunity to play a leading role in supporting a just energy transition for Africa.
This climate policy supports our purpose – “Africa is our home, we drive her growth” – and takes the African continent’s environmental, social, and economic context as its starting point.
From our own operations for newly built facilities by 2030; for existing facilities by 2040; from our portfolio of financed emissions by 2050.
Sustainable finance solutions, lending policies, climate targets, innovative ways of engaging with clients and supporting their transitions towards net zero emissions.

Our Climate Targets and Commitments
Our climate policy takes Africa’s social, economic, and environmental context as its starting point. Commitments and targets have been set for thermal coal, oil, gas, and agriculture, based on their identified levels of elevated climate risk. Over the next two to three years, climate targets and commitments will also be set in additional sectors including insurance, residential and commercial property, and transportation.
We will not finance:
- the deforestation of natural forests and indigenous trees (except where this will have a positive impact, as in the de-bushing of farming blocks for grazing and cropping);
- the production of or trade in other non-indigenous forestry products except from sustainably managed forests; and
- unsustainable fishing.
We will encourage sustainable agricultural practices through sustainable loan products that support renewable energy opportunities, climate-smart agriculture, and through digital platforms to assist small-holder farmers.
We will collect data through partnerships with research groups and industry experts to set an emissions reduction target and a portfolio baseline.
We will finance only those gas related projects that produce zero to minimal fugitive emissions or that are committed to reducing the carbon intensity of liquified natural gas (LNG) plants.
We will prioritise finance for constructing gas-fired power plants when:
- providing support services as part of an integrated renewable energy power solution; or
- converting existing coal- or oil-fired power plants as part of a clearly defined decarbonisation plan aligned to net zero by 2050.
In line with our view of gas as a transition fuel, we will limit the financing of standalone gas-fired power plants providing general baseload, mid-merit or peaking power to a cap of 0.75% of total group advances after 2026, from a current level of 0.14%.
We will reduce our exposure to gas by 2045, in line with our commitment to net zero by 2050, while considering the energy security of the markets where we operate.


We will reduce:
- group advances to upstream oil by 5% by 2030; and
- financing to clients generating power mainly from oil, from 0.05% of total group advances in 2021 to 0.03% in 2026 and zero from 2030.
We will not finance:
- companies with unrestricted flaring for new assets, and we will seek from existing companies with flaring, timebound plans to eliminate flaring for existing assets;
- the extraction of tar sands or construction of associated export facilities, exploration and production of tight oil resources, and pipelines transporting a significant volume of tight oil and export terminals supplied by a significant volume of tight oil; and
- constructing new oil-fired power plants or expanding existing generating capacity, unless such plants provide support services as part of an integrated renewable energy power plant.
We will limit our exposure to 0.70% of group loans and advances in 2021 and to 0.50% by 2030.
We will not finance the construction of new coal-fired power plants or the expansion of generating capacity of existing plants.
We will reduce the financing of power sector clients that generate power mainly from coal, from 0.18% of total group advances in 2021 to 0.15% in 2026 and 0.12% from 2030.
We will finance new coal mines only when there is an overall positive environmental impact.

on the achievement of climate targets and commitments annually.
in the Standard Bank Group’s annual reporting suite.
our overall climate policy whenever necessary, and at a minimum of every three years.