Responsible banks can't ignore climate change

As the Euro Zone's largest bank by market value, what is Santander doing about climate change, a pressing and urgent problem. 

We have major operations in ten countries, all with their own particular energy needs, so the picture is uneven between our territories. Yet if we look globally, and compare us to other banks, this graph from the Banktrack 2019 report "Banking on climate change" shows where we stand. 

Note this graph does not take into account the size of our overall business but rather absolute amounts. When expressed as a percentage of total credit provided our fossil fuel financing comes dead last.

On top of this we have now made a significant commitment not to finance any new coal projects and have already declined to enter into coal projects like one that had been proposed in Indonesia.

Yes, we do operate in some countries that are very fossil fuel dependent, for things like electricity and heating. The challenge is for us to help these countries do a fair transition to a low carbon economy, without damaging social welfare and growth.

Yet I am proud that globally, in the last 10 years we’ve been 8 times within the top three banks in renewable energy financing. And always in the top 5. If we only look at our peers by size and market cap, we were top position in 9 of the last 10 years. 

Furthermore, to help our clients switch to a low carbon economy we are using a whole arsenal of banking instruments, from syndicated loans, to green bonds, project, capital and export finance, advisory, and other products. We call this green finance and we have committed to 120 billion euros of it by 2025. To give you a sense of the ambitious scale of this green finance pledge, it comes to about 17 billion euro per year. 

And we are also working on our own operational carbon footprint. Our target: that 60% of the electricity we consume as an organisation will be from renewable sources by the end 2021. By 2025 we plan to make this 100%. 

We know there is more to do, and we will continue to find ways to do so. This is an existential challenge that as businesses and through our daily lives we need to respond and lead.