Bank of America is boosting its environmental financing goal, aiming to provide $1 trillion in financing for sustainable and low-carbon activities by 2030.
The new target represents a more than threefold increase from a $300 billion goal the Charlotte, N.C., company set two years ago. Bank of America first established an environmental business initiative in 2007 and has financed $200 billion in sustainable activities since then, including asset-based lending, capital raising, bond underwriting and tax equity investments.
Additionally, BofA pledged another $500 billion to financing socially inclusive development, including affordable housing, community development, health care and education. It said the overall $1.5 trillion commitment is in line with the
“Sustainability is a clear focus across our eight lines of business globally,” Karen Fang, head of global sustainable finance, said in an email to American Banker. “This new 10-year sustainable finance commitment of $1.5 trillion in capital demonstrates our belief that there is opportunity for exponential market growth in ESG-themed products and services as well as market share growth.
The basic idea behind sustainable finance, also called transition finance, is to fight climate change and damage to the environment by
Bank of America also named sustainable agriculture, forestry and pollution control as some of the other areas where it has provided financing as part of its environmental initiative.
In February the company said that it planned to cut greenhouse gas emissions from its financing activities to net zero by 2050.
