As of 31 December 2023, SEB’s portfolio of eligible green assets amounted to 61.5 billion kronor, an increase of more than 30 per cent compared to 2022. The growth came mainly from financing of renewable energy and green buildings.
“Green bonds and other sustainable financing are a key part of our customers’ transitions to a low-carbon future and of SEB’s sustainability strategy and I am therefore pleased that our green asset portfolio is growing at this pace. This development has in the past two years helped contribute to a 123 per cent increase in our Sustainability Activity Index, and our overall ambition is to increase sustainability activities by 6–8 times by 2030 compared with a 2021 baseline,” says Jonas Ahlström, head of SEB’s division Large Corporates & Financial Institutions.
SEB issued its first green bond in 2017. Following an update of the Green Bond Framework in early 2022, SEB has issued four bonds in the green format, together amounting to 3.5 billion euros, or 38.9 billion kronor.
“Green bonds have been a part of SEB’s funding strategy since 2017, complementing our other market financing. By issuing green bonds, we have further diversified our global investor base while supporting the bank’s customers in their sustainability transitions,” says Kimberly Bauner, Head of Group Treasury at SEB.
The framework, which is broadly aligned with the EU Taxonomy, aims to contribute to the long-term vision of a low-carbon and environmentally sustainable society. Almost 60 per cent of the assets consist of renewable energy projects, mainly wind power. The remainder is financing of green buildings, clean transportation, sustainable forestry, pollution prevention and energy efficiency projects. Sweden and Finland each account for around one third of the portfolio, while remaining assets are in Germany, the Baltics, the UK and Norway.
The proceeds of the green bonds are estimated to annually avoid or reduce emissions by 1,414,737 tonnes of CO2 equivalents. This corresponds to emissions from around 1.9 million cars* running an average distance of 12,000 kilometres per year.
More information about SEB’s sustainability work can be found in the Annual and Sustainability Report 2023:
Annual and Sustainability Reports
Read more and download The Green Bond Investor Report 2023:
Debt-investors/green-bonds
*The preliminary average emissions from a new car in Sweden during 2023 was 61 g CO2/km (ref. The Swedish Transport Administration).