A Letter from Our CEO
In the two years since we issued our last firmwide TCFD report, the macro environment has grown more complex. Tighter monetary policy, geopolitical tensions, and energy supply shocks have disrupted markets while also making the climate transition that much more challenging.
But sustainability continues to be a priority for our clients — ranging from corporates decarbonizing their businesses to investors in new, clean-energy technologies, and we’re well-positioned to support them.
After all, we’ve long thought the climate transition would be a long-term effort and every business would face trade-offs. In such an uncertain environment, we believe the greatest contribution we can make to the climate transition is to help our clients achieve their sustainability goals.
It’s also clear that financial institutions must continue to work with critical sectors across the economy including energy, transport, and heavy industry. It’s the only way to ensure affordable and reliable energy while new, cleaner technologies continue to develop and scale.
Based on these principles, our sustainability strategy consists of three pillars: our work with our clients, the management of our firm, and our partnerships with other organizations to address market gaps.
Since our last TCFD report, we’ve been focused on execution. In Global Banking & Markets, we’ve served as bookrunner on General Motors’ first green bond and in Asset & Wealth Management, we’ve developed our Horizon platform to give our clients investment opportunities in a range of climate and environmental solutions.
In addition, we’ve continued to embed climate-related expertise into our businesses, advance our climate-risk management, capabilities across the firm, and work with our clients in high-emitting sectors to lower their emissions profiles, as we discuss in the update on our 2030 sector targets.
Beyond our commercial work, we’ve continued to mobilize private and public capital alike for climate solutions in emerging markets. The Climate Innovation and Development Fund, our blended finance facility partnership with Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Asian Development Bank, has directed capital to clean-energy projects across South and Southeast Asia, from an 88–Megawatt wind farm in Vietnam to the electrification of busing in both Vietnam and India.
That said, we still have a long way to go. Two areas that need continued focus are data and policy. First, thanks in part to our internal engineering initiatives, we have enhanced our climate data capabilities. But there’s still room for improvement in data availability and quality. Second, policymakers need to continue creating long-term incentives for investment in sustainable solutions. In the US, for instance, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) promises to provide tax credits and other incentives for low-carbon technologies such as hydrogen and carbon capture. But it is not yet certain how quickly the law will be implemented or how U.S. companies will respond.
Despite all the disruption of the past two years, we’re moving in the right direction. Progress is never a straight line, and the path to our shared climate objectives will not be linear. Still, we remain committed to our sustainability targets along with helping our clients achieve their sustainability goals, and we are well-positioned to support them as they continue their journey.
David Solomon
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
