With this new report, Banking for Impact on Climate in Agriculture (B4ICA) aims to provide banks with practical steps and good practices to align their financial portfolios to net-zero considering the whole agriculture and food (A&F) value chain – reflecting how banks operate and engage with different types of clients.
The report builds on the preceding Introductory Guide for Net Zero Target Setting for Farm-Based Agricultural Emissions, which focuses on farmer clients and farm-level impacts. This latest report dives deep into bank practices relevant to A&F clients along the value chain, including input providers, primary producers (farmers and ranchers), processors, distributors and retailers. It synthesizes and builds on existing emissions accounting and net-zero target-setting standards to give banks both substantive and practical recommendations on how to baseline emissions in their A&F portfolios, procure data, set decarbonization targets and track and report progress. These foundational practices come at an important moment as banks face emerging climate-related regulatory disclosure requirements.
The report is structured around three critical steps in a bank’s journey toward net-zero:
- Baselining: Estimating a baseline of financed emissions in their A&F portfolio against which banks can consider targets, including defining the scope and calculating the baseline using appropriate data and methods.
- Target-setting: Setting credible, science-aligned net-zero emissions targets.
- Reporting on financed emissions: Reporting consistently and transparently while considering A&F-specific complexities such as removals, land-use change, and double counting of emissions.
Development of the report was led by WBCSD with inputs from 2023 B4ICA member banks (AIB, Barclays, Lloyds, Rabobank, and Santander) and partner institutions including the Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials (PCAF) and the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), with technical support from McKinsey Sustainability.
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