Transition Plan for Climate Change Mitigation

Vienna Insurance Group developed a transition plan for climate change mitigation in the 2024 reporting year. This plan sets out how emissions will be reduced to net zero by 2050 for the spheres of impact “underwriting”, “asset management” and “operations” from the VIG sustainability programme.

The transition plan is based on the VIG sustainability programme. It is of central importance to VIG’s business activities and is embedded in the Group’s governance structure.

With the transition plan, VIG aims to reduce absolute greenhouse gas emissions in line with the Paris Agreement. To this end VIG has elected to follow a scientifically grounded net-zero path as a reference for its objective and has chosen the “Net Zero 2050” scenario developed by the Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS), which is in line with the objective of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius through strict climate guidelines and technological innovations.

The transition plan defines science-based targets and is currently focused on the corporate portfolio in under writing, on corporate bonds and equities and other non-fixed-interest securities in asset management, and on VIG’s internal operations.

The reduction targets for the selected portfolios apply at Holding level and are also assigned at Group company level. The greenhouse gas emissions from the base year 2023 serve as a starting point for measuring progress. Based on the selected scenario, the path to net zero requires VIG to achieve an absolute reduction in greenhouse gas emissions (CO₂e) of a little under 30% (starting from the base year 2023) by 2030.

More details can be found in the chapter “Disclosure Requirement E1-4” on page 120 of the Group management report.

2023 – base year

STARTING POINT

The greenhouse gas emissions from the base year 2023 serve as a starting point for measuring progress.

Underwriting¹

approx. 680,000 tonnes of CO₂e

Asset management²

approx. 1,220,000 tonnes CO₂e

Operations

approx. 40,000 tonnes of CO₂e

2030

INTERIM TARGET

30% reduction in emissions

With regard to the selected “Net Zero 2050” scenario, VIG has defined as its first milestone a approx. -30% reduction in CO₂e emissions compared to the base year by 2030.

Underwriting¹

approx. 490,000 tonnes of CO₂e

Asset management²

approx. 870,000 tonnes of CO₂e

Operations

approx. 30,000 tonnes of CO₂e

2050

TARGET

Emission reduction to net zero

The aim of the Paris Agreement is to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (= net zero scenario) through strict climate guidelines and technological innovations.

Decarbonisation levers

Key decarbonisation levers have been identified for each sphere of impact. These serve as a guide and create the framework for tangible measures, both at the level of the individual Group companies and at property level (e.g. investment title, issuer). The identified decarbonisation levers are shown in the following table for each sphere of impact: