Citi Commits to Emissions Reductions in Automotive, Real Estate Loan Portfolios
Global financial services company Citi announced today new interim targets for financed emissions reductions in key carbon-intensive sectors, including auto manufacturing, commercial real estate, steel and thermal coal mining, forming part of the bank’s plan to achieve its 2050 net zero greenhouse gas (GHG) financing goal.
The new targets were published in Citi’s annual Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) report, along with details outlining the company’s progress on incorporating climate risk and opportunity identification into its business strategy and disclosure efforts.
The new 2030 targets, which apply to Citi’s loan portfolio, include goals to cut light-duty auto manufacturing Scope 1 – 3 emissions intensity by 31%, North American commercial real estate emissions intensity by 41%, and absolute emissions from thermal coal mining by 90%. For the steel sector, Citi’s goal is to achieve a Climate Alignment Score of 0 in 2030, based on the Sustainable STEEL Principles (SSP) the bank helped develop as part of a working group facilitated by the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), indicating alignment with the IEA net zero scenario.
The new financed emissions targets add to goals set last year by Citi for the Energy and Power sectors. In the TCFD report, Citi said that it intends to set targets in 2023 – 2024 for additional sectors including Agriculture, Aluminum, Aviation, Cement, and Shipping.
Citi first announced its 2050 net zero emissions financing target in 2021, followed up shortly afterwards with a goal to facilitate $1 trillion in sustainable finance by 2030, including the deployment of $500 billion to environmental finance. In December 2021, CEO Jane Fraser said that the bank will be expecting its clients to measure and communicate their emissions, and provide plans to improve the climate profile of their assets, warning that clients’ progress in moving to more sustainable forms of environmental impact will effect the services provided by the bank.
In a letter included in the new TCFD report, Fraser noted some of the challenges facing the bank in achieving its climate goals, noting that the “transition to a net zero economy will not be smooth or linear,” particularly in light of the events of the past year, with the ramifications of the Russian invasion of Ukraine highlighting the need to balance the needs of the energy transition, energy security and energy access.
Fraser said:
“Meeting the need for energy access whilst also accelerating the transition to a low-carbon economy is no easy feat. But as the world’s most global bank that has an on-the-ground presence in 95 countries and does business in nearly 160 countries, we have the unique perspective and local knowledge to support solutions for the clients and communities we serve.”