Mizuho Financial Group, Inc. has been strengthening our efforts to realize sustainability by setting forth personal well-being, and a sustainable society and economy to support it, as Mizuho's vision for the future in our medium-term business plan, which began in FY2023.
In FY2023, we added new sectors to our sector-specific emissions reduction targets and revised our Environmental and Social Management Policy for Financing and Investment Activity. Today we released our Sustainability Progress 2024 report, which summarizes improvement and progress in these sustainability initiatives.
1. Publication of Sustainability Progress 2024
In this report, we have comprehensively summarized our fundamental approach and strategy, the quantitative and qualitative results of our initiatives, and our progress towards achieving our targets. In addition, we have provided details on our improved initiatives, including in the areas of sustainable business, addressing climate change, natural capital, and human rights issues, and our Environmental and Social Management Policy for Financing and Investment Activity.
Sustainability Progress 2024 Report
2. New medium-term targets for emissions from financing and investment
Mizuho has set a series of sector-specific reduction targets for Scope 3 (emissions from financing and investment) in accordance with the Net-Zero Banking Alliance's Guidelines for Target Setting for Banks, starting with high priority sectors and taking into account factors such as transition risk assessment, credit exposure, and GHG emissions of each sector. New targets have now also been set for the steel and real estate sectors.
3. Revision of Environmental and Social Management Policy for Financing and Investment Activity
Mizuho established the Environmental and Social Management Policy for Financing and Investment Activity ("ES Policy") to prevent and mitigate adverse impacts on the environment and society from our financing and investment activities.
In March 2024, we revised the policy to strengthen our response to climate change, loss of natural capital, and human rights issues, following a series of discussions by our business execution and supervisory lines.
Overview of our ES Policy
Mizuho will continue to work together with our stakeholders to develop solutions to challenging issues and strive to realize Mizuho's vision for the future.