The Bank carefully monitors the information published on anthropogenic climate change and is aware of corporate responsibility for complying with the obligations recorded in the Paris agreement. The Bank wants to achieve its business objectives by maintaining its impact on the climate change resulting from its operating and product activities and the impact of climate change on business activities at the lowest possible level.
The Bank is aware of the impact of its product portfolio on climate and the impact of the risk of climate change on its product portfolio. The Bank has adopted lending policies for the carbon-intensive sector, RES as well as the chemical, oil and gas industries. The aim of the policy for the carbon-intensive sector is to successively reduce the exposure to customers and transactions based on coal as an energy carrier and to refrain from financing new energy production sources based on coal and lignite and on the other hand, the RES policy assumes increasing the financing of operations related to renewable energy in a successive manner.
In addition to taking charge of the financial results, the bank is guided by the principle of sustainability and attaches increasingly more importance to the way natural resources are used in its activities.
In December 2022, the Bank's Management Board adopted the “Strategy of PKO Bank Polski for the years 2023-2025 – “Ready for the challenges, focused on the future”. One of the goals of the Strategy is to seize the position of leader in ESG transformation in the Polish banking sector. The Bank set itself ambitious environmental, social and managerial goals that focus on financing sustainable and transformational projects, ESG financing in each business segment, achieving climate neutrality, increasing the share of energy with green certificates, issuing the Bank's own green bonds, being a leader in education financial youth, activities that support digital transformation as well as a leader in counteracting social exclusion and supporting the population of Ukraine and the process of rebuilding the country. Furthermore, the Bank committed to maintaining a high level of women's participation in managerial positions, a low level of fluctuation and voluntary departures of employees, implementing projects supporting the employment of people with disabilities, bringing the pay gap to a level close to 0% and publishing the trajectory of reducing CO2 emissions, and systematically expanding the scope of disclosures in the scope of the Bank's CO2 emissions.
The Bank is aware of the impact of its loan portfolio on climate and the impact of the risk of climate change on its loan portfolio. The Bank has adopted lending policies for the carbon-intensive sector, RES as well as the chemical, oil and gas industries. The aim of the policy for the carbon-intensive sector is to successively reduce the exposure to customers and transactions based on coal as an energy carrier (consistency with the European climate policy and moving towards net-zero carbon emissions in 2050) and to refrain from financing new energy production sources based on coal and lignite. On the other hand, the RES policy assumes increasing the financing of operations related to renewable energy in a successive manner.
The Bank discloses climate-related information in accordance with the TCFD (Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures) recommendation. The guidelines aim to encourage financial institutions and non-financial companies to disclose information on climate-related risks and opportunities. The guidelines centre around four thematic areas: Governance, Strategy, Risk management, Metrics and objectives. For several years, the Bank has been conducting climate disclosures in CDP Disclosure Insight Action using the TCFD recommendations and for 2023 as one of eight Polish banks, and it has received a climate change disclosure rating (“D”).
A Sustainable Development Committee was established in 2023 to take the decisions necessary for the implementation of the Bank's and the Bank Group's strategic objectives in terms of sustainable development and to oversee the management of the impact of ESG factors on the Bank and the Bank's Group. The Committee is composed of all members of the Management Board and heads of most areas. The Committee’s activities are chaired by the President of the Management Board or the Vice-President of the Management Board managing the work of the Bank’s Management Board, and their deputy is the Vice President of the Management Board supervising the Risk Management Area.
Taking into account the strategic objectives in terms of sustainable development, understood as a positive impact on the environment and society together with ensuring compliance with the principles of corporate governance, the Bank adopted the "Principles for the classification of sustainable development financing in the PKO Bank Polski S.A. Group" in December 2023. The principles take into account the requirements of international standards and the regulatory environment, in particular those arising from the EU Taxonomy and the European Green Bond (Regulation (EU) 2023/2631 of the European Parliament and of the Council). The principles are subject to regular review, at least quarterly. The findings of the review are presented to the Sustainable Development Committee.
The Bank is in the process of implementing the provisions of the Principles, in particular with regard to its business and reporting processes, as well as the related IT systems. At the same time, the process of adapting the offering to the requirements for products with a positive environmental impact is underway.