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