Regional banking company Comerica announced today that it has joined the Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials (PCAF), adding another U.S.-based financial institution to the organization’s membership. The PCAF is a global partnership of financial institutions with a mission to develop and implement a harmonized approach to assess and disclose the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with their loans and investments.

Scott Beckerman, Director of Corporate Sustainability at Comerica, said:

“By joining PCAF, we can work to better understand the carbon footprint of our portfolios and how we can work with our customers to limit the impacts of climate change. It all starts with establishing an industry-led, consistent and transparent accounting methodology – and from there we can begin to collectively better understand how to align our actions with those of a changing world.”

The PCAF is a global collaboration of over 70 financial institutions representing total financial assets of more than $10 trillion. The organization has recently announced the addition of prominent North American members, including Bank of America, Morgan Stanley and Citi.

Earlier this month, the PCAF publicly released its new standard for financial institutions to measure and disclose the greenhouse gas emissions impact of investments and loans. In addition to assessing and disclosing emissions data, the introduction of the standard is expected to enable financial institutions to better set climate targets and asses climate transition risks from their activities. To this end, the new Global Carbon Accounting Standard feeds into the work of other climate initiatives, such as the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), Science Based Target initiative (SBTi) and the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD). PCAF has opened a public consultation on the new standard, which will run through September 30, 2020, and the final version of the standard is expected to be released in November 2020.

Ivan Frishberg, PCAF Steering Committee member and First Vice President Sustainability Banking at Amalgamated Bank, said:

“PCAF is delighted that Comerica has joined over 70 financial institutions globally that are committed to measuring and disclosing the emissions of their portfolio to support meeting the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement. As a large regional bank, Comerica adds to the size and geographic diversity of financial institutions represented in PCAF North America’s quickly growing membership.”

Comerica stated that it is a leader among the U.S. regional banking sector in terms of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) reductions and transparent disclosures. Earlier this year, the bank announced the achievement of all its 2020 environmental sustainability goals including reductions in GHGs, water, waste, and paper consumption. Comerica’s real estate-related GHG reductions stand at over 48 percent at year-end 2019 compared to a baseline year of 2012, comparing favorably to reduction goals of 50 percent by 2025, 65 percent by 2030, and 100 percent by 2050.