Unicaja Banco, as a participating company of the UN Global Compact, takes part in the training programme Climate Ambition Accelerator, an initiative recently launched by the UN Global Compact for companies to gain further knowledge and skills to contribute to the reduction by 50% of global emissions by 2030 and reach net-zero in 2050. The bank is one of the more than 70 Spanish companies that participate in the programme
The bank, which joined the UN Global Compact in 2013, participates in this initiative under the framework of its Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Policies, and is committed to boosting inclusive strategies and based on the values of the 2030 Agenda.
The UN Global Compact Climate Ambition Accelerator is an international programme composed of capacity building sessions, access to global best practices, peer-to-peer learning opportunities and discussion and events to set ambitious science-based targets, as well as to take corporate measures to achieve the reduction of emissions.
A total of 76 Spanish companies, including Unicaja Banco, participate in the first edition of this six-month programme. At a global level, the initiative intends to reach 750 companies committed to zero-carbon emissions in more than 25 countries.
Additionally, within the framework of the relation between Unicaja Banco and the UN Global Compact, it should be mentioned that the bank joined in September 2020 the ‘Statement from Business Leaders for a Renewed Global Cooperation’, fostered by the said institution, and which aims to unite businesses in favour of a global cooperation based on human rights and sustainable development, as well as on ethical leadership and good governance.
The importance of Sustainability and CSR for Unicaja Banco
Unicaja Banco integrates the Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) criteria into the core of its corporate strategy, its management instruments, the marketing of financial products and services and the development of its action plans.
In that sense, Unicaja Banco has established a set of commitments included in an ‘Action Plan on Sustainable Finance’, approved in 2020 and reviewed in April 2021, so as to incorporate specific measures to adequate the bank’s action on climate and environmental risk management to the expectations of the European Central Bank (ECB).
It is also worth to mention that Unicaja Banco, on the occasion of the UN Conference on Climate Change (COP25) held in Madrid in December 2019, signed, along with more than twenty Spanish financial institutions, a collective agreement on climate change, promoted by the Spanish Banking Association (AEB, Asociación de la Banca Española) and by CECA, under which banks committed to reduce the carbon footprint in its credit portfolios, in a way that is measurable under internationally approved criteria, and in line with the targets set at the Paris Agreement.
