Standard Chartered’s approach to tackling climate change – the greatest challenge facing the world today – includes significant action in several areas that promote sustainability. The bank is committed to achieving net-zero operations by 2025 and financing emissions by 2050, a gargantuan task that requires a collective effort from everyone, including its clients. 

“For us to reach net-zero financing, we need to ensure that our clients can succeed in their decarbonization efforts,” says Tracy Wong Harris, head of sustainable finance Asia, Standard Chartered. “Standard Chartered has a strong presence in the regions that are anticipated to be most affected by climate change, and we’re highly committed to enabling climate-friendly transitions through technical support and financing.” 

To achieve its sustainability goals, Standard Chartered has set up a Transition Acceleration Team, consisting of bankers from different industries under the sustainable finance umbrella. The team helps clients have conversations about their transitions and provides advice on decarbonization pathways, mergers and acquisitions, and changing business models. The bank has also set aside US$300 billion in financing to be used by 2030, which clients can access to accelerate their transitions. 

As carbon taxes are applied in Europe and the U.S., and large corporations look to decarbonize their supply chains, many are concerned about “greenwashing” or ineffective sustainability efforts. To help ensure that companies’ efforts are truly sustainable, Standard Chartered has published a Transition Finance Framework on its website, which aligns with national targets and principles of doing no harm and not investing in high carbon-intensive assets. The bank has identified qualified and ineligible assets and activities to enable clients in their transitions. 

Standard Chartered also works on sustainable financing structures, such as sustainable notes, which are deployed to green and sustainable finance assets and sold to long-term investors in Taiwan, including insurance firms, pension funds, and banks. The bank aims to lead the way toward local capital markets and promote sustainable finance to its clients globally. 

Standard Chartered believes that concrete actions are necessary, and everyone has a role to play in ensuring a healthy environment.  

“We as a bank want to take these kinds of actions, and we want our peers also to take the same initiative,” says Harris. The bank has signed a memorandum of understanding with two technical and environmental consulting firms – SGS and Sintali  – to provide clients with free technical support. Standard Chartered Hong Kong was the first international bank to sign a memorandum of understanding with the International Finance Corporation to promote the EDGE (Excellence in Design for Greater Efficiencies) green building certification program. Standard Chartered clients that qualify for green financing will receive free advisory services from the Sintali-SGS EDGE Expert Partner Network. 

Standard Chartered also provides technical support through partnerships with technical consulting firms for the building sector, in which the green financing market is well-developed. The bank has recently structured a deal to help a commercial building undergoing retrofitting, which was used to send in technical consultants to educate the client, quantify energy efficiency, and assess the progress of the retrofit. This deal used a sustainability link structure to decarbonize the existing building sector.  

“Buildings under construction and in operation contribute to about 40% of energy-related carbon emissions in the world,” says Harris. “A large portion of that 40% comes from existing buildings, so there is a lot of opportunity to ensure that renovations promote decarbonization.” 

As a European bank, Standard Chartered has a strict framework and is already aligned with international standards. The bank has set up an internal framework and engages second-party opinions to ensure that data is externally verified. Harris notes that a voluntary carbon market with high integrity and quality will also enable the acceleration of decarbonization pathways.  

“We are very focused on driving this agenda,” she says. “We have a board seat on the Integrity Council for Voluntary Carbon Markets, which is about to publish an international core carbon principle that we hope can drive international carbon standards with high quality and integrity.”  

Harris notes that the fast-paced expansion of the Asian market will persist. As a major source of emissions, decarbonizing this region’s economy is critical in achieving global net-zero carbon emissions. 

“The future is green – we need to scale up and increase our speed of transformation,” says Harris. “Taiwan has a key role to play in this, and regulators have many opportunities to incentivize green financing and help its industries become more sustainable.”