Nature and Biodiversity

Our Goal

CIMB's long-term approach involves managing potential negative impacts from financing and concurrently delivering products and services that positively impact the environment and society, thus creating a balance between risk management and positive societal contributions. We will strongly enable, encourage and engage our clients while steering our operations towards preventing, mitigating and reversing nature loss.

Our Objectives

1. Integrate Biodiversity Considerations: Embed nature and biodiversity considerations into CIMB's sectoral policies, risk management frameworks, and decision-making processes to ensure that environmental impacts are minimised and positive contributions are maximised.
 

2. Align Portfolio with Nature-Positive Goals: Steer CIMB's investment portfolio towards activities that contribute to the prevention, mitigation, and reversal of nature loss, while promoting biodiversity and ecosystem balance and overall health.
 

3. Engage with Clients and Stakeholders: Collaborate with clients and other stakeholders to promote nature-positive practices, support sustainable initiatives, and foster a shared commitment to biodiversity conservation.
 

4. Mitigate Nature-Related Risks: Identify, assess, and manage nature-related risks across CIMB's operations and our customers, including physical, transition, and systemic risks.
 

5. Promote a Just Transition: Ensure that CIMB's efforts to protect biodiversity and address climate change are equitable and inclusive, benefiting all stakeholders in ASEAN, including indigenous populations.

Our Evolving Approach to Nature and Biodiversity

Sustainability Sensitive Sector Guides

CIMB is committed to integrating Environmental, Economic, and Social (EES) considerations into our risk assessment and strategies to ensure a positive impact on stakeholders and the environment in our non-retail financing and capital raising transactions. To address nature and biodiversity risks, we have embedded Biodiversity and Nature considerations in our Sustainability Sensitive Sector List and Guidance document, which: 
 

• Articulates our definition of Sustainability Sensitive Sectors (previously known as High Sustainability Risk Sectors) for certain sectors – Coal, Palm Oil, Forestry, Manufacturing Construction and Infrastructure, Oil & Gas and Mining and Quarrying
  
  
• Provides a reference list of Sustainability Sensitive Sectors
  
  
• Outlines sector guidance to aid CIMB’s decision-making process
  
   

By focusing on the sectors highlighted above, we can effectively:
 

• Identify and mitigate risks: Identify and mitigate potential negative impacts on biodiversity and ecosystems within our operations and investments
  
  
• Support conservation: Promote initiatives that protect and restore biodiversity, such as nature-based solutions and conservation projects
  
  
• Encourage sustainable practices: Foster sustainable practices among our clients and partners to minimise their environmental footprint and contribute to biodiversity conservation
   

No Deforestation, No Peat, and No Exploitation​

In 2022, we rolled out our No Deforestation, No Peat, and No Exploitation commitment to the palm oil, forestry and timber plantation sectors in larger markets, while smaller markets adopted the policy in 2023.
 

We will not finance or facilitate capital raising for companies that:
 

• Are directly involved in the new conversion of High Conservation Value (HCV) areas;
  
  
• Are directly involved in the conversion of peatland;
   

• Lack legal rights and a policy/commitment on respecting free, prior, and informed consent of indigenous and local communities; or
  
  
• Lack policy/commitment to prevent worker exploitation and respect labour rights.

Deforestation and Biodiversity Risk Assessment

We check and monitor compliance to our policies and requirements through our Group Sustainable Financing Policy and Procedures, guided by our Sustainability Sensitive Sector List and Sector Guides for specific industries. Financing requests, including for project finance, which involve potential land use change are escalated for Enhanced Sustainability Due Diligence. These cases are analysed for sustainability risk by internal experts in the Group Sustainability team in consultation with internal sectoral experts within the relevant banking units. 

We have developed a Deforestation and Biodiversity Risk Assessment process as part of our due diligence to assess biodiversity risk in the projects and non-retail clients that we finance across key markets. The process relies on a synthesis of data from three separate web applications providing information on peatlands, areas managed for conservation goals, including UNESCO-MAB Biosphere Reserves and Ramsar Sites, as well as IUCN Management categories.

These insights help to us to ascertain whether further detailed risk assessments are needed to evaluate both physical and reputational biodiversity risks. This approach allows us to validate information, make more informed decisions and provide evidence-based guidance to our stakeholders in forming strategies to effectively address biodiversity challenges within their business activities. 

What Is The Plan Moving Forward?

As a founding signatory of the Principles for Responsible Banking and in light of emerging frameworks such as the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures, we are conducting a comprehensive nature and biodiversity assessment for our key sectors. This assessment aims to provide valuable insights into our dependency and impact on biodiversity, and identify potential risks and opportunities for improvement. We anticipate the results of this assessment will be available in 2025.