CIMB ESTABLISHES 'SCOPE 3' FINANCED EMISSIONS BASELINE TOWARDS ACHIEVING NET ZERO AMBITION

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 28 (Bernama) -- CIMB Group Holdings Bhd has established baseline “Scope 3” financed emissions in its Malaysia and Indonesia businesses as part of its environmental transition plans, enabling it to achieve its net zero overall greenhouse gas emissions target by 2050.

The baselining encompasses financed emissions of on-balance sheet financing for the group’s wholesale, commercial, and consumer segments in Malaysia and Indonesia, the two largest markets for the group.

“CIMB was the first ASEAN bank to join the Net-Zero Banking Alliance and we are pleased to be making decisive moves towards achieving our net zero commitment through the establishment of our Scope 3 financed emissions baseline, as well as the first round of 2030 sector-specific climate targets.

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“Across the group, we seek to align our operations, financing, and investment portfolios in line with the Paris Agreement’s step-up ambition of limiting the global temperature increase to 1.5°C to avoid the worst impacts of climate change,” group chief executive officer Datuk Abdul Rahman Ahmad said in a statement.

Starting from its end-2021 position, CIMB aims to halve its financing and investment exposure to the thermal coal mining sector by 2030 as an interim target for the group’s commitment to phase out coal from its portfolio by 2040.

Similarly, it also aims to reduce the physical intensity of financing clients in the cement sector by 36% from 0.72 to 0.46 tonnes of CO2 equivalent per tonne of cement produced by 2030.

To ensure that it stays on track towards achieving its interim targets, CIMB will be announcing client engagement and decarbonisation plans for the thermal coal mining and cement sectors within 12 months.

The banking group aims to introduce more sectoral targets and transition plans by 2024, including for power generation, transport, iron and steel, real estate, oil and gas as well as agriculture.

-- BERNAMA