Big bank Citi talks net-zero goals, Scope 3 emissions, climate disclosure

This week on the ESG Insider podcast, we’re talking to one of the world’s largest banks about the landscape for climate disclosure rules and standards. 

We sit down with Citigroup Chief Sustainability Officer Val Smith. She talks about how Citi is approaching the energy transition with clients; how investor expectations around climate disclosure are changing; and the challenges of climate data.    

As a global bank with roughly $2.4 trillion in assets and operations on the ground in 95 countries, Citi works across many different sectors of the economy. The companies it lends to have different kinds of environmental impacts, including greenhouse gas emissions. For a bank, those financed emissions are Scope 3 emissions.    

In the episode, Val explains Citi’s net-zero goals and how the bank is approaching Scope 3 emissions in light of evolving climate disclosure regulations and standards. She says this changing landscape has made more collaboration necessary among different teams at the company — from sustainability to finance to legal.  

"In the mandatory disclosure space it's like exam week every week," Val says. “It's an incredibly active moving space with a lot of expectations, and it really does require that top-of-the-house, front-of-the-office collaboration between lots of different teams with different cultures to be able to execute and meet the expectations."    

Listen to last week’s episode, featuring all our interviews from the ESG Insider Live event: https://www.spglobal.com/esg/podcasts/live-what-to-expect-from-the-evolving-climate-disclosure-landscape  

Hear more of our interviews about how financial institutions are approaching Scope 3 emissions: https://www.spglobal.com/esg/podcasts/why-bank-of-america-says-scope-3-emissions-biggest-challenge-for-banks  

https://www.spglobal.com/esg/podcasts/how-financial-institutions-are-tackling-scope-3-financed-emissions  

Read research from S&P Global Sustainable1 on Scope 3 financed emissions here: https://www.spglobal.com/esg/insights/financed-emissions-are-missing-from-many-firms-net-zero-plans     

This piece was published by S&P Global Sustainable1, a part of S&P Global.    

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