Environmental action line

As part of its focus on sustainability as a priority, ABANCA has set decarbonization targets for its loan portfolio by 2030 for the most CO2-intensive industries. These targets are defined in terms of intensity rather than exposure reduction (except for Coal), which demonstrates the entity's commitment to continue supporting its clients in a sustainable transition.

This also responds to its commitment to address the climate emergency and its membership in the Net-Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA), which aims to achieve the decarbonization of credit and investment portfolios by 2050. Compliance with this commitment has been approached with a gradual adoption strategy: in December 2022, emission reduction targets were established for the Steel, Cement, and Aviation sectors, along with a 2030 exit plan for Coal financing. In December 2023, decarbonization targets for the Fossil Fuels, Aluminum, and Automotive portfolios were published.

The publication of these targets for the most significant sectors was completed in June 2024, when ABANCA established new intermediate targets and committed to emission reductions by 2030 in two key sectors: the electricity generation sector and the residential real estate sector. ABANCA committed to reducing the carbon emission intensity of its loan portfolio between 2023 and 2030 by 34% for the electricity sector and 17% for the residential real estate sector.

In this way, ABANCA has expanded its published decarbonization pathway to a total of nine sectors.

In sectors such as agriculture, the limited maturity of global methodologies and the low availability of homogeneous and comparable data currently make it difficult to set quantitative decarbonization targets. However, the entity actively monitors its portfolio in this sector through ABANCA Agro, supporting clients in their transition towards a more sustainable model, paying special attention to issues such as their adaptation to the new CAP (Common Agricultural Policy), which is more demanding in this regard and enables the agricultural sector to fulfill its functions by providing benefits not only for the agri-food system but also for society, such as environmental conservation and the fight against climate change, and the modernization of irrigation systems.

For the maritime transport sector, the diversity of vessels financed in ABANCA's portfolio and the long useful life of the assets currently make it difficult to set decarbonization targets. Nevertheless, ABANCA Mar continues to work on supporting the sector with a focus on improving energy efficiency through promoting the financing of fleet renewals and biodiversity conservation.

The decarbonization pathway set by ABANCA covers a significant part of its portfolio and contributes to the goal of combating climate change. The entity's strategy involves deepening the monitoring of these targets, strengthening engagement with clients, and channeling funds towards activities that contribute to the decarbonization of the economy.

This decarbonization pathway has been approved by the entity's highest governing body, the Board of Directors, which monitors progress (updated in 2025).

*Base year 2021 for the steel, aviation, and cement sectors; 2022 for the fossil fuels, automotive, and aluminum sectors; 2023 for the electricity generation and residential real estate sectors.

» ABANCA has adopted a gradual approach to publishing these targets, which allows the entity to adapt its objectives to ongoing changes in the regulatory framework and the availability of information published by major emitters. These decarbonization pathways will be reviewed as more companies publish their carbon footprint data and as the reference methodologies are refined. Furthermore, the calculation of alignment metrics has been carried out using currently available methodologies. It is important to highlight the limitation in accessing sufficient and adequately granular information.

» In this context, ABANCA has participated in a sectoral project coordinated by AEB, CECA, and UNACC, involving other Spanish entities. The goal was to establish a common methodology and tool for calculating CO2 emissions and reduction targets.

» The reduction targets follow emission intensity metrics per unit of production, with starting points in 2021, 2022, and 2023, and a 2030 target for all nine sectors (among those identified by the NZBA as most intensive). These metrics follow the Sectoral Decarbonization Approach, which incorporates certain elements of PACTA (Paris Agreement Capital Transition Assessment).

» Following the EBA's request for Pillar III ESG templates, and regarding the 2022 publication, the CNAE criteria defining the different sectors have been aligned with Template 3 of that report. This redefinition led to a slight variation in the base year intensity for the steel sector, from 0.832 to 0.790 tCO2/t-steel.

» In 2025, due to the incorporation of portfolios from Eurobic, the starting point for the electricity generation sector's decarbonization target will be revised, though the ambition of the goal remains, with a 34% reduction by 2030.

» The 1.5°C scenarios have been used as a reference, specifically the International Energy Agency's net-zero emissions scenario and the calculation methodology developed by the Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials (PCAF). This initiative aims to establish an international methodology for measuring and disclosing financed greenhouse gas emissions by banks and investors. For the residential mortgage portfolio, the Net Zero by 2050 scenario has been considered the base scenario, further specified with information from the Carbon Risk Real Estate Monitor (CRREM), whose data is extracted from the IEA.

» It is important to note that the 2030 decarbonization targets are not equivalent to an expected linear reduction between intermediate years; therefore, value fluctuations may occur in intermediate years without implying a failure to meet the target.

» This disclosure does not include the public sector or the fixed income and equity portfolios.

» More information on actions contributing to ABANCA's transition and that of our clients is included in the Consolidated Non-Financial Information Statement and Sustainability Information, as well as information on exposure to various sectors with decarbonization targets contained in the prudential relevance report templates.

The bank set itself the goal of becoming a carbon neutral entity before 2024 in its own activity, in this sense we calculate our carbon footprint (verified by external audit) and have established reduction targets. These actions have been with the Calculation and Reduction stamps of the Spanish Office for Climate Change (OECC by its acronym in Spanish). We have the seal for 2019, 2020, 2021 & 2022 carbon footprints. Complete information regarding carbon footprint calculations can be found in our Corporate and Social Responsibility Report.

ABANCA achieved neutrality for 2020, 2021 and 2022 emissions, with the compensation of the remaining emissions carried out through the promotion of forestry projects located in degraded areas, which need to be restored because they have been affected by forest fires or other natural disasters. These actions have been with the Calculation and Compensation stamps of the Spanish Office for Climate Change (OECC by its acronym in Spanish).

We support the planting of indigenous species in Galicia (conifers ecologically adapted) in degraded forested areas that need to be restored because they have been affected by forest fires or natural catastrophes. To do so, we have the collaboration of a team of experts from the ARUME Foundation and the Galicia Forestry Association. This initiative allows us to make progress in our aim to compensate for our carbon footprint. We also have the compensation seal of the Spanish Office for Climate Change for carbon footprint.

Ourstrategic energy efficiency planfor is intended to offer guidelines for achieving greater control over energy consumption, by simplifying its management and identifying where reductions are being made in our energy consumption and CO2 emissions.

Pocomaco Renewable Energy Generation Project

Within the framework of our plan and commitment to energy efficiency, ABANCA has developed a renewable energy implementation project in A Coruña. The objective of the initiative is to increase our photovoltaic energy production for self-consumption.

The project included the installation of 664 solar panels on the roofs of five buildings owned by the bank located in this industrial park in A Coruña.

Installations have been carried out on the roofs of the G9, H1, F12, C10 and D5 archive and warehouse buildings, with an estimated annual electrical production of 414,671.11 kWh, thus avoiding the emission of 148 tons of CO2 per year.

ABANCA CORPORACIÓN BANCARIA S.A. was the beneficiary of 5 subsidies from INEGA, a project included in the incentive programs 1, 2 and 3 linked to self-consumption and storage in the service sector and in other productive sectors, within the framework of the Recovery plan, Transformation and Resilience, financed by the European Union –NextGenerationEU.

Check here the information related to these subsidies.

All the electricity that we consume comes from 100% renewable sources, in this sense ABANCA has renewed its agreement with Endesa, to cover most of the entity's electricity demand with renewable energy of Galician origin for the next years.

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The project was started to recover the tons of nets that end up in the sea, contaminating the marine ecosystem and affecting all of society, especially the fishing industry. This initiative gives a second life to all those kilos of ghost nets, which, with the help of craftsmen and the dedication of net-menders, are placed on the football fields and sports grounds of the clubs in our Basic Sports program.

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Our new waste management policy focuses on the generation points and contributes to promoting the circular economy, as it prioritizes reuse and recycling. The initiative consists of separating at source the waste generated into fractions that are managed by authorized managers and then potentially used as raw material for new processes.

Our corporate headquarters have been awarded the AENOR Zero Waste certificate

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We are making progress on properly treating electronic waste by attempting to give it a second life and reduce its environmental impact. In the reuse process, an analysis is made of its life-cycle in order to evaluate the environmental costs associated with a product bearing in mind its complete cycle.