QNB Group has joined the Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials (PCAF), making it the first bank in Qatar to do so.
The partnership, developed by the Global GHG Accounting and Reporting Standard for the Financial Industry, was created in 2015 and launched globally back in 2019. To date, the partnership’s membership spans 500 financial institutions from six continents.
The industry-led initiative was established with the aim of enabling financial institutions to consistently measure and disclose the GHG emissions financed by their loans and investments, otherwise known as financed emissions.
Estimates from the CDP have put the finance sector’s financed emissions at over 700 times greater than its own.
According to the bank, the PCAF membership facilitates the bank’s measurement of greenhouse gas emissions arising from its loans and investments, setting the standard, providing guidance, building capacity, and providing technical support and access to an emission-factor database.
Commenting on the bank joining the Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials, Fatima Abdulla Al-Suwaidi, QNB Group Chief Risk Officer, commented: “We are proud to be the first bank in Qatar to join PCAF and to be joining a global group of financial institutions committed to disclosing the greenhouse gas emissions of their financial activities.
“We consider this an important milestone, which will underpin our approach to future disclosures, and climate-related target setting. QNB will partner with PCAF to promote the use of consistent, industry best practice standards in support of the sustainability agenda to which we are committed.”