(2 March 2021 – Global) On her first day in the role, Citigroup’s new CEO has announced the bank will achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions in its financing activities by 2050.
Jane Fraser, who succeeded Michael Corbat as CEO on Monday, said the bank will produce an initial plan for reaching the goal within the next year and will include specific targets for carbon-intensive sectors such as energy to reduce their emissions by 2030.
“The climate crisis is among the top critical challenges facing our global society and economy,” Ms Fraser said. “We are committed to bringing as many clients as we can along with us on this journey and working with them relentlessly to get it right.”
Ms Fraser has also committed to achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions for the bank’s own operations by 2030.
Citigroup was the third-largest financier of fossil-fuel companies last year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. With the bank’s latest announcement, it is joining competitors Bank of America Corp. and Morgan Stanley, which have also committed recently to achieve net-zero emissions in their lending and underwriting activities.