BCC Became the First Bank in Central Asia To Develop a Long-Term Climate Strategy
BCC is the first Kazakhstani bank to develop and approve the Climate Strategy, thus strengthening its leadership in sustainable development and commitment to climate action.
The Climate Strategy is a strategic document containing goals and a set of measures and initiatives for the bank to achieve carbon neutrality. Amid the global transition to sustainability and carbon neutrality, development and implementation of the effective Climate Strategy will contribute not only to the bank’s risk management, promotion of climate transition and compliance with international best practices, but also to unveiling new opportunities for green economy financing.
Bank CenterCredit in liaison with the international consulting company EY has set interim and long-term targets pursuant to the science-based approach to reduce carbon footprint both for the bank’s own operations (by 2030, reduce emissions by 42% compared to 2023) and for the financed corporate loan portfolio (by 2030, reduce financed emissions by 42% in key sectors: energy, agriculture, metallurgy, manufacturing).
The Climate Strategy prioritizes building up the green finance portfolio. For the purpose of setting the green portfolio targets, a market analysis of green directions was performed to identify priority activities/projects for financing. Renewable energy and sustainable agriculture were identified as the priority green economy directions to be financed by the bank until 2030, with a potential market volume of ~$3.5 billion by 2030 in the Republic of Kazakhstan. Based on the results of the market analysis performed, targets for the green finance portfolio were set to achieve the target of KZT 400 billion by 2030.
It is planned that these objectives will be achieved through a number of initiatives developed. For example, financing target projects in the area of sustainable development on special terms (new loan products), development of partnerships, and launching new retail green products.
“Implementation of the bank’s Climate Strategy not only strengthens our positions as a leader in sustainability, but also unveils unique opportunities for innovation and growth. We are proud to be the first bank in the region to launch such a strategy. We are confident that this will strengthen the trust of our customers and partners, and create added value for all stakeholders. As part of our commitment to sustainable development, the bank intends to actively implement the Climate Strategy and monitor its results, which will allow us to achieve our goals and maintain full transparency in a dialog with all stakeholders in the process”, stated Ruslan Vladimirov, President of JSC Bank CenterCredit.
The developed Climate Strategy is a significant step both for the bank itself and for Kazakhstan towards achieving sustainable development goals. The Climate Strategy, developed as part of a major ESG transformation, focuses not only on risk management, but also on development and implementation of new opportunities for the green economy. The decarbonization targets set by the bank are extremely ambitious and ahead of national targets, demonstrating leadership in the sustainability and ESG agenda.
*License No.1.2.25/195/34 dated 03 February 2020 issued by the ARDFM RK