Danske Bank starts measuring on the biodiversity impact of our of our loan and investment portfolio

As the first Nordic Bank, Danske Bank have signed up to Partnership for Biodiversity Accounting Financials (PBAF).

The partnership enables us to measure, and in the long term, set concrete targets for our impact on biodiversity.

The rapid loss of biodiversity is considered a potentially bigger crisis than climate change, and poses an urgent threat to human life.

As the first Nordic bank, Danske Bank have now signed up to Partnership for Biodiversity Accounting Financials (PBAF), an international union of banks, who work to reduce their negative impact and increase their positive impact on biodiversity.

‘The biodiversity crisis hasn’t historically seen the same level of as attention and action as climate change, but action is needed and the financial industry has a responsibility to actively take part in solving the challenge,’ says Samu Slotte, Global Head of Sustainable Finance in Danske Bank, and adds:

‘PBAF is an important initiative that supports and promotes the standardisation and transparency of efforts to measure and assess biodiversity-related financial risk. It serves as a framework to measure and report on our biodiversity impact from our investments and corporate lending activities.’

We need to know what our impact is before we can set meaningful targets. PBAF helps us with the tools and methodology that, in the long term, can steer our investments and corporate lending in a more biodiversity-friendly direction.

Samu Slotte

Global Head of Sustainable Finance, Danske Bank

A necessary step

In 2020, Danske Bank signed up to Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials (PCAF), a global initiative that helped kick off our efforts to measure our climate impact. This resulted in a set of climate targets, and it is likewise the intention to set biodiversity-related targets, once we have an overview of our impact.

‘Similar to CO2 emissions, we need to know what our impact is before we can set meaningful targets. PBAF helps us with the tools and methodology that, in the long term, can steer our investments and corporate lending in a more biodiversity-friendly direction,’ says Samu Slotte.

What is biodiversity and why is it important?

Biodiversity can be defined as the variety of animals, plants, fungi, and microorganisms that make up our natural world. Each of these species and organisms work together in ecosystems to maintain balance and support life and everything we need to survive – food, clean water, medicine, and shelter.

Put shortly, a loss in biodiversity can lead to a breakdown in the functioning of this ecosystem and thereby and poses a serious threat to businesses, the economy and ultimately human life.