Emirates NBD strengthens commitment to integrating biodiversity by joining PBAF

3 Min | 15 October 2024

Emirates NBD is the first bank in the MENAT region to join the Partnership of Biodiversity Accounting Financials
Bank takes proactive steps to integrate biodiversity considerations into financial decisions
With the partnership, Emirates NBD reinforced the bank’s leadership in sustainable finance

Dubai, UAE, 15 October 2024: Emirates NBD, a leading banking group in the MENAT (Middle East, North Africa and Türkiye) region, has strengthened its commitment to safeguarding biodiversity by joining the Partnership for Biodiversity Accounting Financials (PBAF). The bank is the first regional Partner of the worldwide initiative that enables financial institutions with a standardized approach to assess and disclose impact and dependencies on biodiversity of loans and investments. Emirates NBD’s decision to join PBAF comes at a crucial time in the run up to the 2024 UN Biodiversity Conference COP16, held in Cali, Colombia.

Biodiversity is as critical as climate change and is linked to economies and livelihoods. Over half the world’s total gross domestic product, approximately USD 44 trillion, is dependent on nature and its services, according to the World Economic Forum.

Financial institutions are encouraged to play an active role in promoting corporate behaviour that safeguards, restores and protects biodiversity. Banks, asset managers and insurers can and must direct capital flows away from activities that have a detrimental impact on nature. By joining PBAF, Emirates NBD is taking a proactive step towards supporting global biodiversity goals, demonstrating the bank’s commitment to integrate biodiversity into financial decisions.

Vijay Bains, Chief Sustainability Officer and Group Head of ESG at Emirates NBD, said: “Emirates NBD is proud to join the Partnership for Biodiversity Accounting Financials as its first regional Partner to explore critical linkages between finance and biodiversity. This collaboration underscores the bank's commitment to integrate biodiversity considerations into its financial decision-making processes, aligning with the priorities of the upcoming COP16 summit in Cali, Columbia. As a socially responsible bank, we are always exploring diverse ways to enhance our commitment towards sustainable finance. As financial institutions worldwide are directing financial flows away from projects that have a negative impact on nature, it is imperative Emirates NBD leads in enabling transparency, responsible assessment, and disclosure of the impact of our financial decisions on biodiversity.”

Wijnand Broer, Program manager at PBAF, commented: “By joining the Partnership for Biodiversity Accounting Financials, Emirates NBD can share the bank’s experience with biodiversity impact and dependency assessment with global peers and contribute to the harmonization and mainstreaming of impact and dependency assessment approaches.”

Earlier in the year, Emirates NBD assumed the role of Co-Chair of the MENA Chapter of the Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials (PCAF), advancing the bank’s sustainable journey. The bank leads the region in offering carbon future contracts trading, fulfilling growing demand from corporations to manage their carbon emissions offsetting and align with the UAE’s Net-Zero 2050 action plan. Emirates NBD is also the first bank in the UAE to adopt the Framework from the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures.

Emirates NBD recently partnered with global carbon ratings agency BeZero Carbon, to conduct enhanced due diligence on the projects that it selects and provides for its customers investing in voluntary carbon markets. The bank now has access to hundreds of global, comprehensive, science-based risk assessments of carbon projects, building customer confidence and trust in the quality of investments.

In 2023 the bank commemorated its 60^th anniversary by planting the first 60 mangrove saplings of 60,000 at the Emirates NBD Mangrove Forest, located in Jebel Ali Wildlife Sanctuary.

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