A year of green records for KBN
KBN’s Impact Report for 2021 reveals all time high levels in KBN’s green lending as well as green bond issuance.
2021 has proved a good year for KBN’s strategic focus on green finance. A record-breaking 7.9 billion NOK were disbursed as green loans to climate-friendly investments across the country. The portfolio of green loans amounted to 33 billion NOK by year end and has for the first time surpassed the 10 percent mark of the bank’s total outstanding lending.
KBN’s Impact Report
Green lending for trams and shore-side power
74 new projects were granted KBN’s green loans in 2021. Oslo’s new tram carts, a shore-side power supply in the Port of Harstad in Northern Norway and a production plant for biochar in Øvre Romerike were among the new investments that received green financing during the year. In total, KBN has outstanding green loans to 342 projects.
The projects we finance contribute to:
- 37,181 tonnes of CO2e reduced + avoided annually
- 38 GWh energy reduced + avoided annually
- 79 GWh of renewable energy produced annually
As in previous years, KBN discloses the entire list of projects and their associated environmental impact in spreadsheet format.
Great interest in KBN Green Bonds
KBN’s green loans are financed through proceeds from the bank’s green bond issuances in global capital markets. In 2021, KBN issued three green bonds in three different currencies, with a total volume of 1.14 billion USD. The green bonds were issued under KBN’s updated Green Bond Framework from March 2021 and were received with keen interest from investors.
Download KBN’s updated Green Bond Framework (pdf)
Improved match with the EU Taxonomy
In its 2020 impact report, KBN were among the first financial institutions to map how financed projects perform against the technical screening criteria set out in the EU Taxonomy for sustainable activities. This exercise has been repeated in the 2021 report, while also expanding to encompass the technical criteria for the full set of EU Environmental Objectives.
According to the mapping, 11% of KBN’s green project portfolio appears to be aligned with the technical screening criteria in the taxonomy, up from 9 % in 2020. 59% is considered “likely aligned”. The complete assessment is available for download in spreadsheet format.
Taxonomy alignment assessment 2021
This sheet summarises findings for all KBN's project categories. Full mapping of each project category against the taxonomy criteria may be found in the following sheets.
Impact report spreadsheet 2021
This spreadsheet contains information about the green projects financed by KBNs green bonds.