Standard Chartered has published its first annual Sustainable Finance Impact report. This report quantifies the impact of the EUR 500m Sustainability Bond of July 2019 and for the first time discloses the USD 3.9bn of Sustainable Assets that are aligned to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in its Sustainable Finance portfolio. These include loans to renewable energy, healthcare, education as well as Microfinance and SME lending in low-income countries.
Standard Chartered is having impact where it matters most, with 91% of sustainable finance assets located in emerging markets and 86% in some of the world’s least developed nations. Emerging markets face the biggest risk from climate change but also have the biggest opportunity to leapfrog to low carbon technology.
Green projects helped avoid 738,998 tonnes of CO2 emissions in the past year, the equivalent of 217,000 people’s annual emissions in low and middle-income countries.
Three million people reached through loans provided to microfinance institutions in countries such as Nepal, Tanzania and Bangladesh. Over 20,000 SME loans to emerging markets including India, Kenya, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
The Bank financed the construction of a provincial general hospital in Northern Zambia. This included 433 new hospital beds, including intensive care beds and facilities for new-borns; a nursing school for 240 future health workers and room to accommodate 102 medical workers.
Construction of a facility which will provide water to four districts in Zambia, with a catchment area of 2500km2 and a water supply capacity of 330,000m3 per day. That is enough to satisfy the demands of more than 1.7 million people every day.
Simon Cooper, CEO, Corporate, and Commercial and Institutional Banking, said: “Our sustainable finance impact report highlights Standard Chartered’s contribution to tackling climate change and the financing of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Our natural footprint as a Bank means that we are providing finance in emerging markets where the need for funding as a positive catalyst for change is greatest. For example, financing of solar projects in India will help avoid over seven times the CO2 from a similar-sized project in France, given the current sources of power on those countries’ grids.”
Standard Chartered will publish the Sustainable Finance Impact report on an annual basis. The bank is committed to rapidly growing sustainable finance and to increase lending into areas aligned with the SDGs, such as the USD1 billion of not-for-profit capital being deployed to help clients produce equipment that will help in the fight against COVID-19.
