Our sustainability targets

Being a sustainable bank is part of our business strategy

At the global level, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Agreement set the general sustainability agenda as well as the more specific climate agenda. We have a key role to play in reaching society’s goals through redirecting investments and financing towards more sustainable technologies and businesses, and contributing to the creation of a low-carbon, climate-resilient and circular economy.

To achieve this and to be an even more sustainable bank than we are today, we have fully integrated sustainability into our business strategy. Our focus will be on the sustainability topics in which we can have a significant impact – and setting targets and objectives in line with that.

Our significant sustainability topics were identified through a combined materiality and impact analysis and then grouped into four strategic pillars: climate action, social responsibility, governance and culture and financial strength.

2050 long-term objective

Become a net-zero bank

Nordea’s future business will be a business where we see an increasing greening of our balance sheet and where we are reducing emissions and mitigating climate risk. We want to make a difference together with our customers and support them in making sustainable choices, contributing to a sustainable society. Nordea’s direction is clear, to become a bank with net-zero emissions by 2050 at the latest.

2030 mid-term objective

Reduce carbon emissions by 40-50%

Nordea has set one of the world’s most ambitious overarching targets among banks to reduce emissions. To reach our 2050 objective, we have set a mid-term objective for 2030 to reduce carbon emissions across our lending and investment portfolios by 40-50% and from our internal operations with more than 50% compared to 2019.

Full list of Nordea’s sector targets:

The sector targets cover Nordea's lending portfolio and will guide Nordea’s work to support its customers’ journeys to reduce emissions and accelerate the transition of the economy.

Sector	Sub-sector	Emissions scope	Metric	Benchmark scenario	Base year	Target year	Target
Shipping	Vessels	1	AER, gCO2/dwt-nm	Poseidon principles (IMO 2050)	2019	2030	-30%
Residential Real Estate	Households and tenant-owner associations	1, 2	kgCO2e/m2	Utility sector NDC¹, CRREM	2019	2030	-40-50%
Oil and Gas	Exploration and Production	1, 2, 3	tCO2e³	IEA NZE²	2019	2030	-55%
Offshore	Drilling rigs and offshore service vessels within Oil and Gas and Shipping	-	EURm	-	2019	2025	-100%
Mining	Thermal peat mining	-	EURm	IEA NZE²	2022	2025	-100%
Mining	Thermal coal mining	-	EURm	IEA NZE²	Restrictive policy. Full phase-out achieved 2021.

_{1 Combined, NDC (Nationally Determined Contributions) plus renovation decarbonisation and building stock turnover decarbonisation (conservative estimates).}

_{2 A normative IEA scenario that shows a pathway for the global energy sector to achieve net-zero CO2 emissions by 2050 and is consistent with limiting the global temperature rise to 1.5 °C without a temperature overshoot (with a 50% probability), in line with reductions assessed by the IPCC in its Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C.}

_{3 Including methane emissions in CO2 equivalents for scopes 1 and 2.}

2023-2025 targets

Climate action

Facilitate more than EUR 200bn in sustainable financing by the end of 2025.
Ensure that 90% of our exposure to large corporate customers in climate-vulnerable sectors is covered by transition plans by the end of 2025.
By 2025, ensure that 80% of the top 200 financed emissions contributors in Nordea Asset Management’s portfolios are either aligned with the Paris Agreement or subject to active engagement to become aligned.
Double the share of net-zero-committed AuM by 2025.
Grow gross inflows from the Sustainable Choice universe to account for 33% of total fund gross inflows by the end of 2025.
Reduce the carbon footprint from Nordea Life & Pension’s listed equity, corporate bond and real estate portfolios by at least 25% by the end of 2024.
All asset managers* managing assets on behalf of Nordea Life & Pension must commit, no later than 2024, to transitioning their assets under management to net-zero by 2050.
Total carbon reduction from internal operations of 30% compared with 2019 by the end of 2023.
Suppliers covering 70% of spend are either aligned with the Paris Agreement or subject to active engagement to become aligned by 2023.

*All managers in liquid asset classes and selected managers in illiquid asset classes.

Social responsibility

Each gender has at least 40% representation at the top three leadership levels* combined by the end of 2025.
With a minimum average index score of 92, respondents** feel they have been treated fairly regardless of gender, gender identity, age, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religious affiliation, (dis)ability, etc. by the end of 2023.
All direct investments in companies made by funds managed directly by Nordea Asset Management are assessed against the minimum safeguards in the area of human rights (in line with the EU taxonomy) by the end of 2023.
Human rights impact assessment of the supply chain in place by the end of 2023.

*Group Leadership Team (GLT), GLT-1 and GLT-2

**To Nordea's employee engagement survey.

Governance and culture

100% of new suppliers* screened for sustainability issues like country risk, sector risk, carbon intensive sectors, investment exclusion list, negative ESG events via media screening and regulatory actions.
Integrate sustainability into people processes covering purpose and values, employee value proposition and variable pay goals by the end of 2023.

*Covering all contracted suppliers that are available in the screening system.

Financial strength

Risk management framework for ESG risks in place by the end of 2023.
Risk assessments in place for the sectors and customers most vulnerable to climate risk by the end of 2023.

See our overall financial targets here

Stories from our work

20-01-2023

Active ownership

Nordea gets high ranking on how we practise active ownership within ESG

Being an active owner is a central part of Nordea’s work with sustainability and ESG practices and in the latest “Voting Matters” report from the NGO ShareAction we’re ranked number one in the Nordics and 11 worldwide.

29-03-2023

Sustainability

”On a good path”

At Nordea, we’ve committed to becoming a bank with net-zero emissions and have set targets for 2023 and 2025. Now, with less than a year until the end of 2023, we’ve invited Head of Group Sustainability Anja Lidgren Hannerz to a talk about Nordea’s progress.

15-03-2023