National Australia Bank : NAB skilling bankers to support big carbon emitters transition

National Australia Bank (NAB) is building a team of climate experts to support the low carbon transition plans of its biggest greenhouse gas-emitting customers.

Over the next two years, a group of corporate and institutional bankers will complete a new course developed for NAB with Melbourne Business School (MBS) and The Climate Reality Project, which was founded by former US Vice President Al Gore.

Bankers will be trained in identifying climate-related financial risks and transition planning so they can better work with customers.

NAB Group Executive - Corporate & Institutional Banking, David Gall said the bank was proud to play a role in supporting customers through bankers who understood the complexity of the transition to a low carbon economy.

'This is a long-term investment in the capabilities of our bankers. Part of our role as a bank is making sure Australia's biggest companies can access the financial expertise and innovative thinking they need to adapt their businesses over coming years,' Mr Gall said.

'We know climate change and the transition is keeping customers awake at night. That's why it's important that we invest in building a team of bankers who are the most qualified at climate change transition planning.'

NAB starts the training program with Melbourne Business School (MBS) and The Climate Reality Project in May.

'NAB's commitment to helping clients move to a low-carbon future fits our purpose of unleashing leaders and ideas for a sustainable future,' said Professor Glenn Hoetker, Director MBS Centre for Sustainability and Business.

'We are proud to support NAB's investment in its bankers through a customised program, jointly developed with the bank, that applies leading-edge knowledge to the reality faced by bankers and customers.'

NAB also continues to invest in its bankers through its Career Qualified in Banking Program, where all employees will undertake a professional qualification that's been developed in partnership with the Financial Services Institute of Australia (FINSIA).

NAB is the only bank in Australasia to invest in this program, which over the next four years will involve more than 30,000 colleagues refining the skills needed to serve customers and communities well, including the environmental impacts of business operations and sustainable business practises.

Last year, NAB announced it is aligning its business operations and lending portfolio to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050, including working with 100 of its largest greenhouse gas emitting customers to support them in developing or improving their low carbon transition plans by 2023.

About NAB

• NAB is in the top 10 issuers of bonds globally that contribute to addressing climate change
• NAB is committed to delivering $70 billion in environmental financing by 2025
• NAB has backed more than 130 domestic and global transactions involving wind farms, solar parks and hydro since 2003, equivalent to 21.59GWs of installed capacity and creating an estimated 44,300 jobs.
• NAB has backed more than a dozen sustainability linked loans for companies that are aligning their debt funding with long-term environmentally and socially responsible target.
• NAB is an inaugural signatory of the United Nations' Environment Programme Finance Initiative's (UNEPFI) Principles for Responsible Banking. NAB is the only Australian bank to sign UNEPFI's Collective Commitment to Climate Action

About Melbourne Business School (MBS)

• MBS is the University of Melbourne's graduate school in business and economics and its MBA program is ranked the best in Australia by The Economist
• About 500 students graduate from MBS with master's degrees in business administration, business analytics or marketing each year
• MBS delivers short courses to about 1200 aspiring professionals and jointly designs customised programs with over 70 clients in the Asia-Pacific region each year.
• MBS operates the Centre for Sustainability and Business (CSAB). Launched in 2020, it facilitates dialogues, grows leadership capability and provides leading-edge ideas to support an environmentally sustainable future for all organisations

About The Climate Reality Project

• The Climate Reality Project, founded in 2006 by Nobel Laureate and former US Vice President Al Gore, aims to catalyses a global solution to the climate crisis by making urgent action a necessity across every sector of society
• It recruits, trains, and mobilises people by providing the skills, campaigns and resources to push for climate action and high-level policies that accelerate a just transition to clean energy
• The Project's signature activist program, the Climate Reality Leadership Corps, has trained more than 31,000 change makers worldwide since 2006.
• It has 10 branch offices in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Europe, India, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, the Philippines and South Africa, a partnership in China, and 140 chapters across the US