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.

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.

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.

Garanti BBVA, the BBVA Group’s Turkish franchise,  integrates climate change and inclusive growth within its core strategies. In line with that commitment, Garanti BBVA has launched a program of events called 'Sustainable Future in Exports' to support Türkiye’s adaptation to the European Green Deal and pave the way to sustainable investment. At the first event, held on November 23, 2022 at Fişekhane Istanbul, the bank explained the European Green Deal and the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) to the sectors and institutions–especially SMEs–that will be affected by the new rules governing exports to the EU.

In an interview with Anadolu Agency, Garanti BBVA’s Head of Customer Solutions and Digital Banking Işıl Akdemir Evlioğlu analyzed the latest developments in digitization and mobile banking, as well as the bank’s investments in this field, following 15 years of mobile banking.

BBVA is committed to clean energy and will support the energy industry in its transition. The bank has therefore announced it will reduce emissions from its oil and gas portfolio by 30% by 2030. This commitment is in addition to the bank's 2021 targets  in four other carbon-intensive sectors and the decision to stop financing coal companies, in line with the zero net emissions banking alliance (NZBA).

BBVA's decarbonization targets: What do they mean and what is their scope?

BBVA's Turkish franchise is one of the main drivers of renewable energy projects in the country.

Around four million people have potentially benefited from the social bond that BBVA issued in 2021, in a placement that amounted to 1 billion euros. Almost 50% of the amount was allocated to the access to essential services category (health, education and financial services), followed by socioeconomic advancement and empowerment (37%), affordable basic infrastructure (12%) and affordable housing (0.6%). Such is the conclusion of the 2021 Green and Social Bonds Report just published by the bank. The document details the environmental and social impact generated by the projects and loans that have been financed with the proceeds of the green and social bonds issued by BBVA, S.A. since 2018, amounting to a total of €5 billion, of which €3 billion were green bonds and €2 billion were social bonds.

BBVA financed almost €14.5 billion between April and June 2022, up 50% from the same period from the previous year. This is the quarter that has mobilized the largest amount. Moreover, since 2018, it has financed a total of almost €112 billion and thereby has exceeded half of its 2025 goal set at €200 billion.

BBVA has implemented a comprehensive cloud-based solution that simplifies theprocess of sending and validating information, providing carbon footprint indicators andemission reduction tracking figures. It is a platform that will enable active, data-drivenmanagement of its sustainability policies.

BBVA and US venture capital firm Fifth Wall, are joining forces to invest in technologies that address climate change in the real estate and construction industries, which make up 40% of the global total carbon dioxide emissions.Through Fifth Wall’s Climate Fund, BBVA will invest in companies seeking decarbonization solutions that address the entire lifecycle of buildings.

BBVA has announced a 20 million dollar investment in Lowercarbon Capital, one of the few venture capital funds specializing in innovative companies in the climate change and decarbonization fields.  This investment will focus specifically on the carbon capture sector.

Three energy projects financed by Garanti BBVA were recently presented with three awards by IJ Global, one of the world's leading journals for energy and infrastructure finance. The prestigious magazine recognized the bank for three projects it financed. The Star Refinery project was presented the award for the Oil and Gas Project of the Year in Europe; the Central Anatolian Natural Gas Combined Cycle Plant project (with installed capacity of 853 MW) won the award for the Best Energy Restructuring Project of the Year in Europe; and the Kalyon - YEKA Karapinar Solar Power Plant Project received the award for the Export Finance Agreement of the Year.

Garanti BBVA and PwC Turkey organized a webinar discussing ESG and its impact on the energy sector, discussing the Paris Agreement, the European Union Green Agreement, the Carbon Regulation Mechanism at the Border, the need for incentives for a sustainable financial market and action proposals. Emre Hatem, Investment Banking and Finance Director of Garanti BBVA, Murat Çolakoglu, PwC Turkey Energy Infrastructure and Natural Resources Sector Leader, Evren Sezer, PwC Turkey ESG Platform Leader and Mehmet Özenbas, ESG Director of PwC Turkey, shared their views.

BBVA has accelerated the volume of financing for sustainability-related projects, both for climate action and those that contribute to inclusive economic growth In 2021, the bank channeled 35.4 billion euros in sustainable finance, up 72% from 2020, and totaling 86 billion since announcing its sustainable finance commitment in 2018 This amount is 43% of the announced total target: 200 billion euros for the 2018-2025 period.

BBVA has improved one position in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI), thus becoming the most sustainable bank in the world, together with the South Korean bank, KB Financial Group. Both banks received the highest score in the global banks category. After holding the second position for the past two years, this is the first time that BBVA has reached the top position in this benchmark international ranking.

Garanti BBVA, one of Turkey’s leading banks in sustainable finance, has released its 2019 - 2020 Garanti BBVA Green Bond Allocation and Impact Report, in which the bank shares details of how it allocated the proceeds of its green bond issue and reports on the impact of funded projects.

BBVA has joined the MIT Climate and Sustainability Consortium (MCSC) in order to accelerate the development of large-scale solutions to fight climate change. BBVA is currently the only bank in the world in this alliance, which includes 15 leading companies from different sectors, working together with MIT academic research teams. The members of the consortium will share processes and strategies for environmental innovation.

Both organizations have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to strengthen the mobilization of financial resources in Latin America and the Caribbean and to increase cooperation to boost economic recovery in the post-COVID era.

On November 24th, BBVA Chair Carlos Torres Vila took part in the first session of the UNEP FI Leadership Council, the United Nations Environment Programme - Financial Initiative’s (UNEP FI) new body. BBVA is the only Spanish bank on this council, which is comprised of chairpersons or CEOs of financial institutions around the world. UN Secretary General António Guterres also addressed the council.

As of January 2021, 12 percent¹  of BBVA’s new financing is connected to sustainability, according to the figures released on Investor Day, which was held last week. At this event, BBVA’s Global Head of Sustainability, Javier Rodríguez Soler, also announced that BBVA expects to channel over €35 billion in sustainable financing in 2021. This represents more than 70 percent growth from 2020. “Decarbonization, in particular, and sustainability, in general, represent the greatest transformation in the history of humankind,” Rodríguez Soler stressed. This phenomenon represents an “huge business opportunity” for BBVA and its shareholders.

As part of its commitment to Turkey’s green transformation, Garanti BBVA Leasing and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) are offering $25 million in loans to eligible companies looking to invest in sustainability.

The Meridiam infrastructure fund has enlisted the services of BBVA to finance the first project finance for electric vehicles in the world. BBVA has acted as Mandated Lead Arranger in this operation, involving the participation of seven banks and a total amount of 138 million euros.

The role of banking is fundamental as a financier of all productive sectors. The influence that can be exerted on the behavior of banking customers and their environmental performance, through such financing, is critical to achieving the objectives of the Paris Agreement.

- BBVA commits to reduce emissions from its oil and gas client portfolio by 30% by 2030

BBVA has set intermediate targets to decarbonize its portfolio in four CO2-intensive industries. Following its commitment in March to stop financing coal-related companies by 2030 in developed countries and by 2040 for the rest, the bank now announces that between 2020 and 2030 it will reduce the carbon intensity in its loan portfolio by 52 percent in power generation; 46% in automobile manufacturing; 23% in steel production; and 17% in cement production. These sectors, together with coal, account for 60 percent of global CO2 emissions¹. BBVA will focus on accompanying its clients with financing, advice and innovation solutions as part of a global decarbonization effort.

- BBVA's decarbonization targets: What do they mean and what is their scope?