Our Climate Strategy

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 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.