Financial institutions are key to unlocking the system-wide change needed to lower global emissions and limit global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial temperatures. As providers of the capital, they have a unique influence over other actors and can play a significant role in greening our economies, the communities that we live in and our day-to-day lives.
Business in the Community Ireland (BITCI) is supporting Ireland’s business sector in the transition to a low carbon economy with the Low Carbon Pledge – the 1st dedicated pledge generated by Irish business to set industry standards on sustainability and reduce carbon usage. Aviva shares its story about its climate action journey which is aligned to BITCI’s Low Carbon Pledge and to science based targets (SBTs).
Our ambition is to become Net Zero by 2040 and have a validated SBTi target to reduce Aviva's Scope 1 and Scope 2 operational emissions by 90% from a 2019 baseline by end of 2030. We aim to reduce carbon emissions in our operations, offices, suppliers, life and general insurance portfolios, and customer and shareholder investments. Sustainability based goals are now embedded into Aviva’s business plans and risk framework.
Recent actions we have taken to reduce our carbon footprint include transferring €3.6 billion in heritage Aviva Life & Pensions business from non-ESG funds to funds classified as Light Green under the sustainable finance disclosure, launching our first renewable energy insurance product, and maintaining our commitments to electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles phasing out our petrol and diesel vehicles with over 90% of our fleet now hybrid and electric vehicles, providing €5 million in funding to the Nature Trust to support the planting of 1.2 million native tree saplings across Ireland and purchasing renewable electricity tariffs for our offices.
The Irish Commercial Property team has taken several steps to reduce the fund's carbon footprint, including procuring electricity from renewable sources, installing smart meters and electric vehicle chargers, upgrading external lights with LED lighting, and conducting water and waste assessments.
We recognise that while we have control over Aviva's operations and influence on its supply chain, when it comes to decarbonising the economy in which we operate and invest and the risks we underwrite, Aviva is one part of a larger ecosystem. We are also grappling with the challenge of understanding and measuring Scope 3 emissions, in other words the emissions arising from the value chain of our customers, investees and suppliers. There are continued challenges towards measurement of Scope 3 emissions and associated complexity, due to limited and unsophisticated data and methodologies. This includes the risk of significant double counting or worse if multiple organisations are reporting on the same emissions. We want to target emissions which we can reliably measure.