De Volksbank happy with banks’ ‘green’ intentions
De Volksbank is pleased that other Dutch banks are also setting themselves hard climate targets for the first time. We already have the ambition to be completely climate neutral by 2030.
De Volksbank happy with banks’ ‘green’ intentions
Banks are working on their own climate objectives
Most banks have so far been only indirectly involved in the climate negotiations, but that seems to be changing now.
In an interview with de Volkskrant, CEO Peter Blom of Triodos Bank and Kees van Dijkhuizen of ABN AMRO stated that it is logical to align their balance sheets with the climate agreement (in dutch) set out in the Dutch government’sCoalition Agreement.
De Volksbank has been committed to climate change since the beginning of 2016, and aims to be a climate-neutral bank by 2030 in order to contribute to keeping our planet habitable. We are not only doing this through our more sustainable business operations, but we feel it is our duty in particular to combat climate change through the activities we finance.
On to 2030...
At the end of 2017, our balance sheet was 27% climate-neutral. The total CO2 emissions of our investments were 1,331 kilotons and are mainly caused by our mortgage loan portfolio and, to a lesser extent, by our investments in government bonds and local authorities.
In the years ahead, we will set to work to reduce CO2 losses and further increase CO2 profits. And we will continue to do so until we are climate neutral. We do this by boosting our investments in renewable energy projects and helping our mortgage customers to make their homes more sustainable.
Major catalyst
As part of de Volksbank, ASN Bank plays the role of catalyst in the field of sustainability. The PCAF (Platform Carbon Accounting Financials), for example, was established in 2015. Financial institutions use this platform to develop a uniform method to map the impact of investments and financing on the climate, the basis of which was first developed by ASN Bank.
ASN Bank also played an important role in the realisation of the Spitsbergen Ambition [2018-2020], a commitment between Dutch financial institutions to collectively combat climate change. The Ambition and was presented [to Ed Nijpels, Chairman of the Dutch Climate Council *2] on 26 June 2018.