NWB Bank publishes its climate action plan

Today, at our Annual General Meeting, we have presented our climate action plan. This plan describes how we will help to reduce carbon emissions to meet the Paris targets. As a bank, we are committed to a loan portfolio that generates net zero carbon emissions by 2050. By 2030, we want to have achieved at least a 43% reduction in emissions compared to 2019, the first year in which we calculated our climate impact.

Lidwin van Velden, CEO: “I am proud of this plan, which is challenging both ourselves and our clients in the Dutch public sector. I want to emphasize that the targets we have set are minimum targets: we aim to surpass them! We will actively encourage our clients to continue their efforts to improve sustainability. Not only by engaging in dialogue with them but also by offering them sustainability-linked loans.”

Last week, we provided our first sustainability-linked loan to the Zuiderzeeland Water Authority. The water authority will receive a discount on the annual interest rate on the loan provided if it achieves the sustainability targets we have set together.

Annual General Meeting of Shareholders (AGM)

At the AGM the decision was made to declare a dividend of €50 million for the 2021 financial year. Ard van Eijl and Melchior de Bruijne have been appointed and reappointed, respectively, as members of the Managing Board for a period of four years. Ard has been CRO of our bank since 2018 and now joins the statutory members of the Managing Board. Melchior has been our CFO since 2018. Toon van der Klugt, in turn, has been reappointed as a member of the Supervisory Board, also for a period of four years.

Our 2021 Annual Report and the corresponding ESG Facts & Figures report are now also available. Our climate action plan unfortunately is not yet available in English.