BBVA has invested 20 million dollars in Just Climate’s Climate Assets Fund I (“CAF I”) whose objective is to invest in the highest impact solutions that can radically reduce or remove emissions, while generating attractive risk-adjusted financial returns.

The 2023 ‘Reunión Nacional de Consejeros Regionales’ (National Meeting of Regional Advisors, or RNCR) brings together over 300 people from the business community across the country to analyze the social and economic challenges Mexico is facing. It also demonstrates the contributions made by BBVA Mexico to propel the development of projects and find solutions that foster growth and well-being in the different regions of the country.

Mace, the company that managed the construction of the iconic London Eye, has become a global benchmark for sustainability in the construction industry. It has committed to reduce its carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions (CO2) by 10 percent each year, save 10 million tons of carbon for its clients and contribute to biodiversity gain through the protection of 500 hectares. BBVA is supporting the construction company in this transition.

Garanti BBVA, in cooperation with KAGİDER, organized the country’s Women Entrepreneurs Competition for the 16th time this year. The winners of each category of the competition were announced at the June 1st awards ceremony.

BBVA’s Turkish unit has renewed its syndicated loan agreement obtained from international markets within the scope of its foreign borrowing program and in accordance with social sustainability criteria.

BBVA has trained 102,000 employees in sustainability between 2021 and 2022. In 2023, in addition to continuing to train new hires, the bank is focusing on the specialization of 15,000 professionals in sustainability, developing training programs adapted to their needs.

Spain is a key market to promote sustainability at BBVA. In the first quarter of 2023, the bank channeled €7.81 billion euros in sustainable business in this market - up 40 percent from the same period last year and more than 50 percent of the total amount (approximately €14 billion) mobilized by the BBVA Group. “Over half of our sustainable business was channeled in Spain in the first quarter of the year, a new record,” the BBVA CEO said this Wednesday at the 18th Meeting of the Banking Sector organized by IESE.

Spanish households with higher consumption emit more CO2 than those with lower expenditure, although this difference is accentuated by transport use patterns, while emissions from food and energy are less unevenly distributed. By age, adults aged between 35 and 40 emit 6.9 tons of CO2 per year on average, 10% more than the average Spanish adult, according to the report ‘The Carbon Footprint of Spanish Households’ by BBVA Research.

Garanti BBVA, as main sponsor of the Turkish division of CDP (Carbon Disclosure Project), the world's largest environmental reporting platform run in Türkiye by the Sabancı University Corporate Governance Forum, welcomed the results announced at the 13th Climate Change Conference and Award Ceremony of CDP Turkish chapter. Garanti BBVA Sustainability Manager Seray İmer received the award on behalf of the bank, which is once again on the A List at the global level according to the CDP 2022 results.

BBVA has channeled 150 billion euros in sustainable business from 2018 to March 2023, half of the €300 billion target set for the 2018-2025 period. Nearly 14 billion euros was mobilized in the year's first quarter, an increase of almost 20 percent compared to the same period in 2022. “Quarter after quarter we are making good progress towards achieving our sustainable business goal for 2025,” said Javier Rodríguez Soler, BBVA’s Global Head of Sustainability, commenting on these results.

The President of Uruguay, Luis Lacalle Pou, and the country manager of BBVA Uruguay, Alberto Charro, gave the opening presentations at the BBVA Sustainability Forum this Tuesday in Montevideo. A meeting where government officials, experts and the business community analyzed various initiatives to support the fight against climate change. BBVA Chair Carlos Torres Vila recorded a video message in which he stressed the need for all countries to join the race to decarbonization in Latin America, and emphasized the progress in Uruguay in its transition toward a more sustainable economy.

In line with its Net Zero Banking Alliance commitments, Garanti BBVA announced its interim decarbonization targets for 2030. As the first bank in Türkiye to announce that it will no longer fund coal-related projects, Garanti BBVA joined the UN-convened Net Zero Banking Alliance in 2021.

BBVA has published its clients’ progress toward decarbonization in the initial version of its climate transition plan. The bank is one of the first in the world to apply the recommendations by the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ) to define a transition plan. Emissions declined in all sectors with published decarbonization indicators. BBVA’s goal is to finance this emission reduction by its clients.

In the last decade, the average social well-being in the countries that make up the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) would have declined approximately two percent if the damage caused by CO2 emissions had been internalized, thus avoiding the worst future scenarios of global warming, according to BBVA Research.

To promote sustainable growth in the country, BBVA Mexico, González Calvillo (GC), PwC Mexico and the UN Environment Program held the first edition of the ESG Summit Mexico, in which -with the participation of experts and guests from organizations such as S&P, BlackRock and the Mexican Sustainable Finance Council-, the main aspects that a company must know to include environmental, social and corporate governance criteria into its business model were addressed.

BBVA is firmly committed to working towards building a greener and more inclusive society. To this end, for the third consecutive year and on the occasion of the Annual General Meeting (AGM), the bank will make a donation of 300,000 euros to social organizations working in four areas related to the environment and inclusive growth. Fundación Grandes Amigos en Acción, CESAL, Fundación Plan Internacional and Fundación Ecomar were the winning organisations in 2022.

BBVA is the only Spanish financial institution that is a member of the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) Finance Industry Advisory Board, which held its first meeting in Paris. This initiative aims to be an institutional channel between the agency, the finance community and energy policy makers in order to promote dialogue on the issues that affect energy investments, in particular those related to the transition toward clean energy.

Garanti BBVA presented its sponsored platform ‘Women of Commerce’ as an example of good practice at the 67th session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women held at the UN Headquarters in New York from March 6 to 17, 2023.

After announcing that the bank will have 35 percent women in management positions in 2024, BBVA has launched the high performance program ‘I am female talent’, which is geared toward the bank’s female employees with the greatest potential for growth. The bank has also presented a new remuneration policy for executive directors, which includes a diversity indicator as part of the variable incentives.

BBVA Chair Carlos Torres Vila stated that “Mexico is going to be a clear winner in the current context” in which U.S. companies are moving production to closer regions. This trend, known as ‘nearshoring’, is going to accelerate due to the tax incentives the U.S. has designed to promote investment in the fight against climate change in the country (the Inflation Reduction Act, or IRA). He stressed this at CERAWeek, the benchmark global event for the energy sector, which is being held in Houston throughout this week.

BBVA Chair Carlos Torres Vila participated in a round-table discussion on the present and future of sustainable finance, where he stressed the central role of banks as an intermediary, accompanying society in its journey to reduce carbon emissions. In his opinion, with its activity, “banks contribute to economic development and social well-being by tackling major challenges like digitization and sustainability.”

Matrix Renewables, the TPG Rise-backed global renewable energy platform, and BBVA have announced the closing of €40 million in sustainable financing to begin the construction of two solar plants, Zaratán and Arroyadas, in the municipality of Valladolid, in northwest Spain. The new plants will lead to the creation of 500 local jobs during the construction phase.

The global carbon credit trading platform Carbonplace has raised 45 million dollars in a seed funding round and has been incorporated as its own entity. BBVA, one of the nine founding banks, has participated in this round and has appointed its Head of Carbon Markets at BBVA Corporate & Investment Banking, Ingo Ramming, as a representative on Carbonplace's Board of Directors.

BBVA has been recognized yet another year in the latest 2023 edition of S&P Global’s Sustainability Yearbook. BBVA is one of the most sustainable banks in the world —the top five percent — according to this ranking, which was released today. The yearbook distinguishes the leading companies for sustainability in 61 different sectors.

In 2022, BBVA channeled €50 billion into sustainable business, up 41% from the €35.4 billion mobilized in 2021. The bank has now channeled a total of €136 billion since 2018, when it announced its sustainable business mobilization target through 2025. That target, set initially at €100 billion, was trebled in October 2022 to €300 billion, thanks to the reinforcement of the product offering in the wholesale and retail segments.

Sustainability and with it inclusive growth are at the center of Garanti BBVA's strategy. As part of its efforts, the bank continues to support the EU Green Deal harmonization process in Türkiye, hosting a themed program of events titled ‘Sustainable Future in Exports.’