Danske Bank Monitors its Carbon Footprint and Releases Comprehensive Climate Action Plan to Help Customers Fulfil Paris Agreement Goals
Danske Bank A/S
Danske Bank has mapped its direct and indirect carbon emissions as part of its work on creating a new climate action plan. The figures show the bank's impact on the transition to a more sustainable future and the opportunities for the bank to work with customers to achieve significant reductions in carbon emissions by 2030 and 2050.
Danske Bank is dedicated to being a leader in the transition to a more sustainable future. It has made significant progress in reducing its investments in and lending to oil and gas production companies by 37% and 50%, respectively, since 2020.
The next stage in this journey is the release of a new and ambitious climate action plan that maps Danske Bank's entire carbon emissions from all of its activities, direct and indirect. The mapping is based on 2020 figures, which are the most recent data available.
According to this data, the Group's total carbon footprint is 41.1 million tonnes of carbon emissions, emphasising Danske Bank's critical role in the green transition, as Denmark's total carbon emissions in 2021 were 44 million tonnes.
The mapping is the basis for a new, comprehensive climate action plan. The plan's goal is to ensure that by 2030 and 2050, Danske Bank and its customers will have cut their carbon emissions in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement.
“Being the second-largest bank in the Nordic region with close to 3.3 million customers and DKK 2,800 billion in invested capital and lending, we are in a unique position to contribute to solving the climate challenge. We have therefore prepared an ambitious plan to support our own and our customers’ transitions towards a sustainable future. The plan encompasses all activities, from providing finance to personal customers who want to improve the energy efficiency of their homes to businesses involved with fossil energy production that want to transition to more sustainable alternatives,” says Carsten Egeriis, CEO of Danske Bank.
The vast majority of Danske Bank's carbon footprint—99.9%—is due to so-called financed emissions. These are indirect downstream carbon emissions owing to Danske Bank's finance and investing activities.
Source: Danske Bank
