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17 January 2023

FAB launches report exploring the potential of Carbon Trading

Abu Dhabi, 17 January 2023: First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB), the UAE’s largest bank and one of the world’s largest and safest financial institutions, has launched a report which explores the potential of carbon trading.

Titled: ‘Seizing the Carbon Trading Opportunity’, the report provides an overview of how carbon trading and carbon markets work, this is to dispel misconceptions that may held in the public domain. The report also looks at the viability of this trading system as a potential gamechanger in the fight against climate change.

The report offers several compelling cases and scenarios where carbon markets could provide economic incentives for companies to reduce their environmental footprint such as offsetting unavoidable emissions against credits or projects that absorb carbon elsewhere in the world.

The detailed report also acknowledges that key questions remain about how the potential of carbon can be exploited. The analysis does however outline how technological and financial power would be necessary to fully tap the carbon markets solution, ensuring that it becomes front and centre of climate action in the near and medium term.

Shargiil Bashir, Chief Sustainability Officer at First Abu Dhabi Bank, said: “In global efforts to reverse the effects of the climate crisis, carbon markets have grown as a viable asset class and are now viewed as a potential ‘gamechanger’ in the climate fight. At FAB, we believe it was necessary to capture the buzz around this solution and with our unique window into the UAE economy, we have provided recommendations that we hope will inform decision makers as they embark on this opportunity. We see the future of carbon trading in the UAE as a bright one, this is because the UAE is deploying ingenuity, investment, and innovation to ensure carbon markets becomes an effective discipline.”

‘Seizing the Carbon Trading Opportunity’ follows a series of report and white paper launches by First Abu Dhabi Bank. At COP27 in November 2022, FAB successfully launched a ‘Green Hydrogen’ whitepaper.

FAB has a commitment to becoming net-zero 2050 was the first UAE and GCC bank to join the Net Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA). FAB is regional pacesetter in sustainable finance with a firm target of USD 75 bn in green financing for the period 2022-2030.