Nordea comments on NGO report on Europe’s 25 largest banks approach to climate and biodiversity

In the report all banks are criticised for not doing enough to address the issues of climate change and biodiversity loss. ShareAction also provides recommendations on how banks can improve.

“We welcome this report and the areas it addresses,” says Head of Group Sustainability Anja Lidgren Hannerz. “Several of the recommendations presented in the report support the direction we are heading and working towards. We are glad to see that Nordea is recognised in the report for our commitment aligned with absolute emissions reductions required in credible 1.5C scenarios; unfortunately as one of only three banks,” she says and adds:

“It should also be noted that the assessment for the report was made before Nordea published its updated fossil fuel sector guideline which contains several improvements. Among other things, Nordea is committed to phase out thermal peat, and we will not provide project financing for expanding exploration of new oil and gas fields. That said, we recognise that we still need to improve and we continue to work on this. We are, for example, working on setting sector targets for our most climate vulnerable sectors which will be published soon.”

In terms of biodiversity Nordea Asset Management is part of “The Finance for Biodiversity Pledge” which represents the financial industry’s most prominent demonstration of its desire to act on the issue. Nordea is involved in several working groups in the pledge to jointly create and align reporting and metrics. During 2023, Nordea also intends to further establish our strategic approach to biodiversity and nature-related impacts at group level. A biodiversity position statement including our ambitions going forward will be published.