New targets
Santander's latest Climate Finance Report outlines three new interim targets to decarbonize its portfolios by 2030: -29% absolute emissions financed in the energy sector; and -33% emissions intensity in aviation sector and -32% emissions intensity in the steel sector. The targets add to those the Group had announced in February 2021, when it said it would end financing for electricity generating customers if 10% of their revenues relied on thermal coal; and eliminate exposure to coal mining worldwide, by 2030. At the start of the year, the Group also released its target of -46% emissions financed in the power generation sector.
Santander will release its interim targets to decarbonize the other more carbon-intensive portfolios it has — property, auto manufacturing, auto lending, cement, agriculture and other sub-sectors — in keeping with the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative’s (UNEP FI) Net Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA), of which Santander is a founder member.
To further its aim, Santander is focused on aiding its customers go green. To advise customers and assist them with their own decarbonization, the Group’s engagement with them has been constant.
Santander is also making inroads with creating and distributing products and services that will help retail customers make the green transition. It has been promoting green mortgages, energy renovation for homes and buildings, and financing for electric vehicles and non-polluting farming equipment, among others.
To coordinate its investment and retail banking initiatives, Santander has formed a Global Green Finance Team, which kicked off in the first half of the year and will help find synergy between Group initiatives.
Santander remains committed to raising EUR 220 billion in green finance between 2019 and 2030, with an interim target of EUR 120 billion by 2025. According to the Group's Climate Finance Report, Santander Corporate & Investment Banking (SCIB) had already invested or facilitated EUR 74.4 billion as of June 2022.
Santander has been carbon-neutral in its own operations since 2020. It aims to get all its electricity from renewable sources by 2025. Its 2022-25 efficiency plan aims to reduce its electricity consumption by 2.6% and its absolute CO2 emissions by 35.4%.