2019-09-16 Bloomberg Businessweek

F I N A N C E

3

Bloomberg Businessweek September 16, 2019

22

Edited by

Pat Regnier

Putting Climate on the

Balance Sheet

● How should banks account

for their role in financing global

warming?

×

C ± % ÷

ILLUSTRATION

BY

731

dissecting transactions—from corporate loans to

residential mortgages—to test ways of measuring

the Dutch lender’s overall carbon footprint. It’s

an elusive figure. Data provided by the bank’s cli-

ents, which range from automakers to energy pro-

ducers, are often inaccurate, and it’s possible to

double or triple count the same emissions when

different parts of the bank work with the same

client. “It quickly becomes a very daunting and

sometimes demotivating topic once you start to

understand the level of complexity,” Crouch says.

Doing the bookkeeping on carbon may not be

glamorous work, but banks are slowly seeing the

need for it. The United Nations last year warned

Behind the scenes at some of the world’s biggest

banks, small teams of employees are busy trying

to calculate what might prove to be one of the

most important numbers any financial institution

will ever disclose: how much the assets on their

balance sheet are contributing to global warming.

One of those people is Kaitlin Crouch at ING

Groep NV. For the past five years, she’s been

F I N A N C E

Bloomberg Businessweek September16, 2019

22

Edited by

Pat Regnier

Putting Climate on the

Balance Sheet

● Howshouldbanksaccount

fortheirrolein financingglobal

warming?

ILLUSTRATION

BY

731

dissecting transactions—from corporate loans to

residential mortgages—to test ways of measuring

the Dutch lender’s overall carbon footprint. It’s

an elusive figure. Data provided by the bank’s cli-

ents, which range from automakers to energy pro-

ducers, are often inaccurate, and it’s possible to

double or triple count the same emissions when

different parts of the bank work with the same

client. “It quickly becomes a very daunting and

sometimes demotivating topic once you start to

understand the level of complexity,” Crouch says.

Doing the bookkeeping on carbon may not be

glamorous work, but banks are slowly seeing the

need for it. The United Nations last year warned

Behind the scenes at some of the world’s biggest

banks, small teams of employees are busy trying

to calculate what might prove to be one of the

most important numbers any financial institution

will ever disclose: how much the assets on their

balancesheetarecontributingtoglobalwarming.

OneofthosepeopleisKaitlinCrouchatING

GroepNV. For the past five years, she’s been