Green banking - statistics & facts

Pressured from almost all directions, banks all over the world are turning to sustainable initiatives to save their good reputation. The banks are taking on responsibility and have set up targets to help meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set up by the United Nations. Sustainability, and the UN targets, refers to environmental, economic, and social issues, and due to the current importance of the issue, various providers have come up with standardized scores to measure and rank companies according to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria. The scores, however, may differ markedly for one and the same company depending on which provider’s score is being observed. Measuring sustainability is not an easy task: the divergence of the measures is just one example showing the complexity of the topic.

What is green banking?

Green banking refers to sustainable banking specifically with regards to the environment, which is also the sustainability – or ESG - factor that banks tend to pay a little extra attention to, and climate change is the most common goal included in banks’ sustainability strategy. Banks are applying this through integration of environmental sustainability factors into their services such as lending, investment, and portfolios, more specifically by financing green energy projects or issuing green bonds. This approach does not mean that banks are giving up profit maximization, but rather they are trying to maximize profit while prioritizing environmental sustainability.

Emission targets of banks

Another action taken by many banks to be greener is to set targets to reduce their greenhouse gas (carbon dioxide) emissions, and while doing so also report their emissions based on different scopes. Another effort to help achieve decreasing greenhouse gas emissions of banks, is the United Nations' “Net-Zero Banking Alliance”. Launched in spring 2021, the alliance brings together banks to reach the ambitious target of net-zero emissions by 2050. As of December 2021, the alliance had a total of 98 signatory banks worldwide, although most of them were European.
This text provides general information. Statista assumes no liability for the information given being complete or correct. Due to varying update cycles, statistics can display more up-to-date data than referenced in the text.
Published by Statista Research Department, Jan 10, 2024

Key insights

Highest Sustainalytics score among world's largest banks
Royal Bank of Canada
Number of European signatory banks of Net-Zero Banking Alliance
70
Most common social and environmental goal of banks
Climate change
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Editor’s Picks Current statistics on this topic

Main social and environmental goals included in banks' sustainability strategy worldwide as of March 2021

Banks

Main sustainability goals included in banks' strategy worldwide 2021

Value of green bond issuance of the largest banks in the United States in 2022 (in million U.S. dollars)

Banks

Value of green bond issuance of the largest banks in the United States 2022

Value of green financing of a selection of the largest banks in Europe in 2020 (in billion euros)

Banks

Value of green financing by Europe's largest banks 2020

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Overview

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Overview

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Green financing

Green bonds

3

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Fossil fuel financing

6

Fossil fuel financing

GHG emissions

5

GHG emissions

Approaches

5

Approaches

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