Regulatorische Anforderungen zur Dekarbonisierung von Banken-Investmentportfolios und die Ableitung von Zielen und geeigneten Kennzahlen zur Messung der Zielerreichung

Abstract

The financial sector plays a central role in the transformation towards a sustainable economy. Regulatory requirements such as the EU Taxonomy Regulation, the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the Pillar-III disclosure requirements oblige banks to disclose their climate strategies and align their investment decisions with climate targets. There is a particular focus on so-called financed emissions, as these generally represent the largest share of total emissions at banks. The gathering, assessment and management of these emissions is complex and requires standardized methods and reliable data. At the same time, banks are faced with the challenge of defining suitable targets and key figures that can be used to measure progress in the implementation of their decarbonization strategy. This thesis addresses the question of which regulatory requirements banks will face, which targets can be derived from them and which key figures can be used to measure target achievement accordingly. After presenting the basics of decarbonization, such as the Paris Agreement, the EU Action Plan for Sustainable Growth and the relevant requirements at EU level, established methods for measuring financed emissions and target-setting approaches such as the Sectoral Decarbonization Approach or the Absolute Contraction Approach are presented. In addition, scientific scenarios such as the International Energy Agency's Net Zero Emissions by 2050 or Carbon Risk Real Estate Monitor are analysed. Existing KPI models are compared based on the sustainability reports of two international banks. A further chapter deals with the development of suitable key performance indicators (KPIs) in the context of climaterelated targets. In addition to the theoretical part, three expert interviews were conducted with sustainability experts from the banking sector. The evaluation of the interviews enables a comparison of theory and actual implementation in banks. The analysis shows that the PCAF standard for calculating financed emissions is established in practice, while different approaches are sometimes used to define targets, as the composition of the portfolios differs or banks are guided by different frameworks. The KPI system developed proposes a combination of different parameters in order to make both absolute emissions and sector-specific progress measurable. The interviews showed that high data quality and internal communication are key success factors. It is clear that regulatory requirements must increasingly be integrated into the strategy and that banks should actively contribute to the transformation. However, in addition to regulatory clarity, a successful decarbonization strategy also requires a well-considered objective and clear anchoring within the organization.

Date of Award	2025
Original language	German (Austria)
Supervisor	Albert Mayr (Supervisor)