Addressing Climate Change (Initiatives based on TCFD Recommendations)

The TCFD Recommendations call for disclosures on corporate governance, strategy, risk management, and indicators and targets relevant to climate change–related risks and opportunities.

At Mizuho, we have supported the intent and aims of the TCFD Recommendations since December 2017, and we are working to engage in initiatives and enhance disclosures in accordance with the recommendations. The current status of our response to the TCFD Recommendations is as follows.

TCFD Report (PDF/4,545KB)

Governance

  • Mizuho’s stance on addressing climate change, our aims and actions, and our medium and long-term strategies and initiatives are set out in the three documents — the “Environmental Policy”, the “Mizuho’s Approach to Achieving Net Zero by 2050”, and the “Net Zero Transition Plan (2023 Revision)” — and have been approved by the Board of Directors.
  • A supervisory and business execution governance framework has been established, centered on the Board of Directors.
    [Supervisory] The Board of Directors and the Risk Committee conduct oversight on reported and deliberated matters first discussed by business execution line.
    [Business execution] The Sustainability Promotion Committee, the Risk Management Committee, the Executive Management Committee, and other committees regularly have deliberation and discussion, to be reported to the Board of Directors. The Group Chief Sustainability Officer (CSuO) (established in FY2022) and Group Chief Risk Officer (CRO) lead initiatives in their respective areas under the Group CEO’s supervision.
    * In the Board of Directors, Executive Management Committee, and Sustainability Promotion Committee, discussion is held concerning climate change response at least once per year.
  • The Climate Change Response Taskforce and five working groups have been established to enhance our promotion structure with regard to climate change topics being addressed jointly by multiple departments within the Group.
  • Sustainability-related indicators have been adopted for evaluating executive compensation, such as sustainable finance amount, climate change initiatives, and assessments by ESG rating agencies.

Strategy

  • The Net Zero Transition Plan has been revised (established in 2022, revised in April 2023) to promote the Group’s climate change responses in a more integrated manner, from the perspectives of facilitating transitions in the real economy, capturing business opportunities, and enhancing risk management.
  • Identification of priorities in the Transition Plan:
    • [Materiality] “Environment and society” has been identified as one of the material issues.
    • [Top risks / scenario analyses] “Worsening impact of climate change” was designated as one of the top risks for FY2023. Through scenario analyses, we recognized the importance of client responses to transition risks and client engagement.
    • [Key sectors / next-generation technologies] The key sectors that Mizuho will focus on and engage with, and next-generation technologies related to decarbonization in each sector were identified from the perspective of the transition to net zero emissions,.
  • Recognition of opportunities and initiatives to capture opportunities:
    • We recognize transformations in industrial and business structures toward the transition to a non-carbon society and investments and their social implementation in practical applications of new technologies as our business opportunities.
    • We selected “sustainability and innovation” as one of our five areas of focus in the new medium-term business plan (FY2023 through FY2025).
    • Based on our sustainable business strategy, we actively support clients’ transitions to a decarbonized society and their measures to address climate change.
      • Financing for a decarbonized society: We raised our sustainable finance target over the FY2019 to FY2030 period to JPY 100 trillion, of which JPY 50 trillion is earmarked for environment and climate-related finance.
      • Establishment of foundations and scaling up the initiatives for decarbonization: We have set up the Transition Equity Investment Facility and expanded the target scope for economic and industrial structural transformations and practical applications of technologies. We disseminate initiatives to SMEs in Japan and to Asia through strategic collaborations with external partners.
      • Capability building: We have strengthened our sustainability transformation talents and enhanced sustainability-related expertise related to environment technologies (targets set for FY2025).
  • Sector-specific initiatives:
    • We set mid-term GHG emission reduction targets, monitor results and performances, and pursue engagement with clients for each key sector, such as Electric Power and Oil & Gas, based on their positioning for decarbonization and on Mizuho’s opportunities and risks.
  • Risk recognition:
    • We define climate-related risk as “the risk of tangible and intangible losses as a result of transition risks1 and physical risks2 from climate change manifesting or amplifying other risks”.
    • We ascertain the entirety of risks associated with climate change by identifying the risks manifested or amplified by transition risks and physical risks and assessing their importance in each risk category (qualitative evaluations). We recognize credit risk (deterioration of client business performance) and market risk (decline in the value of equity holdings) to be of particularly high consequence.
    • Transition risks: Envisioned transition risks include credit risk related to financing and investments in clients who are impacted by more stringent carbon taxes, fuel efficiency regulations, or other policies or by delays in shifting to low-carbon and other environmental technologies; and reputational risk associated with financing fossil fuel projects.
    • Physical risks: Envisioned physical risks include operational risk associated with damage or deterioration of the Group’s assets due to temperature increases or increased severity of natural disasters; and credit risk associated with reduced client revenue due to business stagnation or labor force reductions.
  • Scenario analysis:
    • Transition risk
      Scenarios Network of Central Banks and Supervisors for Greening the Financial System (NGFS)3 Current Policies, Below 2℃, Delayed Transition, and Net Zero 2050 (1.5℃) scenarios
      Analysis method We specify parameters for evaluating the impact of risks and opportunities faced by clients in the sector being analyzed. We then analyze the increases in Mizuho’s credit costs caused by transition risks by formulating an outlook for the impact on clients’ financial results, based on how the parameters change under the scenario.
      Targeted sectors Electric utilities, oil and gas, coal, steel, automobile, maritime transportation, and aviation sectors (worldwide)
      Period 2050
      Increase in credit costs Cumulative increase in credit costs through 2050 (Difference from Current Policies scenario)
      Below 2℃: JPY 360 billion
      Delayed Transition: JPY 1.17 trillion
      Net Zero 2050: JPY 1.65 trillion
      Implications
      • While credit costs will increase over time in all scenarios and may have a commensurate financial impact on Mizuho in the medium to long term, the impact on Mizuho's short-term financial soundness will be limited.
      • The analysis affirms the importance of early transition by clients and the orderly transition by society as a whole.
      Future actions
      • We will pursue in-depth engagement with clients to encourage early business structural transformations.
      • We will assist governments in developing and implementing policies for orderly transitions in each country.
    • Physical risk
      Types of risk Acute risks Chronic risks
      Scenarios NGFS Current Policies and Net Zero 2050 scenarios NGFS Current Policies and Net Zero 2050 scenarios
      Analysis method

      Damage to assets and business stagnation associated with changes in natural disasters caused by temperature increases

      Direct impacts

      • Amount of damages from damage of Group assets
      • Credit costs from damage of real estate collateral


      Indirect impacts

      • Credit costs from reduced revenue associated with client business stagnation

      Asset deterioration and impact on labor force reductions associated with temperature increases
       

      Direct impacts

      • Amount of damages from deterioration of Group assets
      • Credit costs from deterioration of real estate collateral


      Indirect impacts

      • Credit costs from reduced revenue associated with client labor force reductions
      Analysis scope

      Areas: Domestic, Overseas

      Targets: Mizuho Group and credit clients (Small and Medium Enterprises, large corporations)

      Areas: Domestic, Overseas

      Targets: Mizuho Group and credit clients (Small and Medium Enterprises, large corporations)

      Increase in damage costs / credit costs

      Maximum increase if a stress event materializes (Current Policies, 2100, single year)

      Cyclones and floods: Approx. JPY 90 billion
      Wildfires: Approx. JPY 30 billion
      Droughts: Approx. JPY 1.5 billion

      Maximum increase if a stress event materializes (Current Policies, 2100, single year)

      Temperature fluctuations (as a factor in labor force reductions, increased air conditioning usage): Approx. JPY 40 billion

      Implications Although the likelihood of the above disasters occurring simultaneously is low, the analysis confirmed the possibility of additional losses of approximately JPY 90 billion in a single year if the largest stress event (cyclones and floods) materializes
      Future actions We have recognized the importance of controlling operational risk by improving the Group’s asset portfolio

 

Risk management

  • Identification of climate-related risk and its integration into our risk appetite framework and comprehensive risk management
    • We identify transition risks and physical risks arising from climate change and integrate them into our risk appetite framework and our comprehensive risk management framework for managing credit, operational, and other types of risk.
    • We have established the Basic Policy for Climate-related Risk Management in the interest of establishing an effective management system based on the characteristics of climate-related risks.
  • Top risk management: As part of our management of top risks, which are risks designated by top management as having major potential impact on Mizuho, we designated the Worsening impact of climate change as a top risk. We examine additional risk control measures for risks designated as top risks and report on the status of their implementation to the Board of Directors and other committees.
  • Risk control in carbon-related sectors
    • We have established a risk control structure to assess risk in carbon-related sectors (electric utilities, oil and gas, coal, steel, and cement sectors) along two axes - the client’s sector and the status of the client’s transition risk responses - in order to identify and monitor high-risk areas.
    • We control risk in high-risk areas under the following exposure control policy.
      • We pursue greater engagement with clients to support them in formulating effective strategies for transition risks, in disclosing their progress, and in embarking at an early stage on business structural transformations in order to move into a lower risk sector.
      • In order to facilitate a client’s business structural transformations, we provide necessary transition support after verifying that the client has set valid targets and has planned an appropriate transition strategy in line with international standards. (In FY2022, we established criteria and a process to confirm transition strategies.)
      • We carefully consider whether to continue business with a client in the event that the client is not willing to address transition risks and has not formulated a transition strategy even one year after our initial engagement.
      • In the ways described above, we reduce our exposure over the medium to long term.
  • Environmental and Social Management Policy for Financing and Investment Activity (ES Policy)
    • We have established and implement the financing and investment policy that specifies businesses and sectors with a particularly high likelihood of leading to adverse impacts on the environment and society (such as transition risk sectors, coal-fired power generation, coal mining (thermal coal), and oil and gas).
    • The business execution and supervisory lines periodically review changes in the external business landscape and the outcomes of the policy’s implementation and revise the policy and improve its implementation as necessary.
    • Major changes made in March 2023
      • Coal mining (thermal coal) sector: Prohibited financing and investment used for infrastructure linked with thermal coal mining.
      • Oil and gas sector: Added a due diligence item for oil and gas extraction (are there sufficient GHG reduction measures in place?) and clarified the due diligence items for oil sands and shale oil and gas extraction.

Metrics and targets

Major monitoring metrics Targets Recent results
Scope 1 and 2 emissions4 Carbon neutral by FY2030
(maintaining carbon neutrality thereafter)
FY2021: 150,987 tCO2e
Scope 3 (emissions from financing and investment) Net zero by 2050 (Targets and results disclosed by sector)
– Electric power FY2030: 138 to 232 kgCO2e/MWh FY2021: 353 kgCO2e/MWh
– Oil and gas FY2030
Scope 1 and 2: 4.2 gCO2e/MJ
Scope 3: –12 to –29% 
(compared to FY2019 levels)
FY2021
Scope 1 and 2: 6.5 gCO2e/MJ
Scope 3: 43.2 MtCO2e
(–29% (compared to FY2019 levels))
– Coal mining 
(thermal coal)
OECD countries: Zero by FY2030
Non-OECD countries: Zero by FY2040
FY2021: 1.7 MtCO2e
Sustainable finance / environment and climate-related finance amount Total for FY2019 to FY2030: JPY 100 trillion
(JPY 50 trillion of this amount is earmarked for environment and climate-related finance)
Total for FY2019 to FY2022: JPY 21.2 trillion
(JPY 8.1 trillion of this amount on environment and climate-related finance)
Outstanding credit balance of coal-fired power generation plants based on the ES Policy Reduce the outstanding credit balance to 50% of the FY2019 balance by FY2030, and achieve an outstanding credit balance of zero by FY2040 March 31, 2023: JPY 235.5 billion
(down 21.4% from March 31, 2020)
Exposure to high-risk areas in transition risk sectors Reduce over the medium to long term March 31, 2023: JPY 1.6 trillion
Status of client transition risk responses March 31, 2023: Steady progress in the targeted sectors
SX talents KPIs
- Sustainability management experts
- Environment and energy sector consultants
FY2025 
- 1,600 experts
- 150 consultants
March 31, 2023:
- Approx. 1,300 experts
- Approx. 130 consultants

 

Data for disclosure aside from monitoring metrics:

  • Sector–by–sector credit exposure in line with the TCFD Recommendations
  • GHG emissions from financing and investment (“Financed Emissions”) based on the PCAF methodology
    • Expanded assets and sectors to be measured (proprietary investments and other sectors aside from sectors included in the TCFD Recommendations)

 

  1. Transition risks: Risks stemming from widespread policy, reputational, technological, and market changes which occur as the result of transitioning to a decarbonized economy.
  2. Physical risks: Risks such as the loss or damage of assets as a direct result of temperature increase itself, as well as reduced client revenue due to business stagnation or labor force reductions and other impacts as an indirect result of climate change.
  3. A network of central banks and financial regulators addressing issues such as climate change risk.
  4. Targets of analysis / scope of data collection: Seven group companies (Mizuho Financial Group, Mizuho Bank, Mizuho Trust & Banking, Mizuho Securities, Mizuho Research & Technologies, Asset Management One, and Mizuho Americas), with adjusted emission factors / market based
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