Absa Group has disclosed that it mobilised R121.1 billion in sustainable finance between 2021 and 2024, surpassing its R100 billion target a full year ahead of the original deadline. The South African banking group reported the milestone in its 2024 Sustainability and Climate Report, and in July 2025 Euromoney named it Africa's Best Bank for ESG for 2025.
Absa executed 50 sustainable finance transactions in 2024, a 32% increase year on year, and deployed R37.1 billion of sustainable finance in that year alone.
TRANSACTIONS AND GREEN ISSUANCE
Among the transactions completed in 2024, Absa executed what it described as South Africa's first sustainability-linked corporate bond featuring an upward-only ratchet mechanism. The structure ties the coupon to the borrower's ability to meet predetermined sustainability key performance indicators, and the upward-only ratchet means the coupon can rise if targets are missed but cannot fall if they are exceeded.
Absa reported ESG bonds totalling R10.9 billion. Absa also acted as lead transaction adviser on the Tanga UWASA Green Bond in Tanzania, a transaction that financed water and sanitation infrastructure for the Tanzanian utility. That deal was recognised as Sustainable Finance Deal of the Year in Africa at the Global Finance Sustainable Finance Awards 2025.
EMISSIONS REDUCTION AND 2030 PATHWAY
On the environmental side of the ledger, Absa reported a 33.2% reduction in its own operational carbon emissions relative to a 2018 baseline, moving the bank towards its target of a 51% reduction in its own emissions by 2030. These figures cover the bank's own operations; financed emissions, those produced by clients and attributable to a bank's lending, are tracked separately.
A further reduction of about 18 percentage points is required to reach the 2030 goal.
Euromoney announced Absa as Africa's Best Bank for ESG for 2025 on 18 July 2025.