Palestine Bank Group Achieves a Qualitative Leap in Reducing Its Carbon Emissions Between 2022 and 2025

SadaNews - In a move that reflects its ongoing commitment to sustainability and its direction towards building a green and sustainable future, the Palestine Bank Group has achieved a qualitative leap in reducing its carbon emissions by 55.8%. The Palestine Bank Group announced a significant achievement in its commitment to environmental preservation and enhancing efforts to combat climate change through a reduction of its carbon emissions by 55.8% during the period between 2022 and 2025, positioning it as a leader among financial institutions adopting responsible consumption practices. This is part of an integrated strategic framework that balances financial performance with environmental and social impact, effectively contributing to mitigating the effects of climate change. This development is part of a comprehensive corporate strategy, overseen by the Board of Directors and senior management through a specialized committee, the Sustainability Committee, which works to integrate governance and sustainability principles into the core operations of the group. The group has worked to reduce these emissions through various internal initiatives aimed at adopting responsible consumption principles, which aim to preserve resources and limit their depletion. The investment in the Jamala Renewable Energy Station in mid-2024 is one of the most prominent milestones of this transformation, as the Palestine Bank has aimed to utilize the clean energy produced by the station, which is expected to reach 2.8 million kilowatt-hours in 2025, compared to about 1.4 million kilowatt-hours in 2024, contributing to reducing reliance on traditional energy sources and lowering carbon dioxide emissions resulting from them. This achievement is not only related to the environmental dimension but also extends to encompass all aspects of sustainability, as it has a clear impact on the social and economic dimensions. The group enhances these aspects based on a sound governance strategy that ensures the establishment of transparency and disclosure principles, as the group is keen to align its strategy with the best international standards, including preparing sustainability reports according to the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standards, as a tool to enhance stakeholder engagement through honesty and openness. In this context, the General Director of the Palestine Bank, Mr. Mahmoud Al-Shawwa, affirmed that this achievement represents a practical translation of the bank's commitment to climate action, noting that reducing carbon emissions is no longer an option or a temporary trend, but a robust strategy to ensure the alleviation of climate change impacts. He added that sustainable investments are considered one of the most important pillars of this strategy. This achievement is an extension of the Palestine Bank Group's efforts in sustainable work, supporting the group's orientation towards achieving carbon neutrality as a strategic priority for the group in the long term, thereby reinforcing the role of the banking sector not only as a real driver of the economy but also as a financial institution that treats the environment as part of the system of commitments and elements for performance evaluation, emphasizing the importance of contributing to the preservation of resources and the surrounding environment.