LBBW no longer describes itself as climate-neutral.
(Photo: dpa)
Frankfurt Landesbank Baden-Württemberg (LBBW) no longer claims to be “climate neutral”. LBBW refrained from such wording in the latest sustainability report, as a spokesman for the bank said. The weekly newspaper “Die Zeit” had previously reported on it.
The largest German state bank declared at the end of 2020 that it would be completely climate-neutral from 2021. LBBW wanted to offset the climate-damaging emissions that LBBW emits by investing in a tree fund – specifically through the Arbaro Fund afforestation fund.
However, it is common for companies to offset CO2 emissions by purchasing certificates. Other large German financial institutions are doing the same.
According to “Zeit”, LBBW disregarded several common compensation criteria in its approach. It must therefore be ensured that the compensation is additional and that the tree would not have been planted anyway.
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Apparently, LBBW itself had doubts about their actions. After describing itself as climate-neutral in the 2020 sustainability report, this was no longer the case in the 2021 report. It was released in early April 2022. Overall, the bank no longer says that it is already climate-neutral.
Criticism by Urgewald
However, the Landesbank is fundamentally convinced of the Arbaro Fund: It “continues to see it as a valuable contribution to climate protection”. The bank has not yet been able to say whether LBBW will buy certificates in the future in order to be able to call itself climate-neutral.
The certificates that companies want to use to compensate for CO2 emissions are not about the legally prescribed emissions trading, in which certain companies need an emission allowance for CO2 emissions.
The environmental organization Urgewald is critical of simply compensating for emissions in banking operations. “Especially for banks, this one-sided view of their own emissions without a look at the financed business and its emissions is not enough,” says financial campaigner Regine Richter.
That belies the true extent of the responsible emissions. However, many financial institutions are only just beginning to record the carbon footprint of their loan portfolio.
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