The International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC) is looking to launch carbon offsetting offerings before the end of 2023, ISFI has learned.
“The business development team is currently exploring opportunities to introduce offsetting offerings as integrated solutions with trade financing, and we are targeting to have such offering available for our beneficiary member countries before [the] end of next year,” Nasser Al-Thekair, the ITFC’s general manager of trade and business development, told ISFI.
This is part of the ITFC’s bigger sustainability drive: it is in the process of adopting its first climate finance policy to address environmental risks and identify opportunities for sustainable and green trade finance.
Just last month, the ITFC participated in Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund’s largest carbon credit sale which resulted in the sale of 1.4 million tons of carbon credits. Participating in the auction will pave the way for the ITFC to tailor solutions for OIC member countries, Nasser told ISFI.
Notably, a portion of the carbon credits bought by the ITFC during the auction were generated in OIC member countries, namely Morocco and Turkey, in line with the ITFC’s mandate of supporting green projects in member countries.
As a first step in the ITFC’s carbon neutrality journey, it intends to offset its administrative carbon footprint and become net-zero in this regard. Next, the multilateral corporation will explore opportunities to offset its financing carbon footprint.
To transition to carbon-neutral financing, the ITFC is looking to focusing its efforts on mobilizing and deploying financing for climate-sensitive projects, supporting member countries’ efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.