Citi's 2021 Environmental, Social & Governance Report

As I write this note in late April, a war is raging in Ukraine with significant global ramifications.

From the beginning, we have prioritized the humanitarian crisis, doing everything we can to help the people in Ukraine, including our own colleagues, whilst keeping our business there operating so we can support critical supply chains and the NGOs delivering essential aid. We are also helping our multinational clients who have decided to wind down their business in Russia.

Although it might be too early to predict the war’s long-term impact on the world order, it’s not too soon to begin asking what it means for the issues at the heart of our ESG agenda—and the ESG agendas of so many other companies.

I recently returned from seeing clients in Europe and the Middle East, and it is security—be it energy, food, defense, cyber or operational—that’s now consuming their attention. The challenges facing our society have not only reinforced the need for businesses such as Citi to step up, but also the critical importance of collaboration on a global scale.

Consider the climate crisis. At Citi, we’ve been proud to play a leading role in our industry’s drive to a more sustainable future, and in recent months, we released our initial plan for reaching net zero emissions by 2050. But Russia’s role as a major energy producer is forcing governments to reevaluate their energy security and supply. Ultimately, combating climate change cannot be done by any company or country alone; we need businesses making the right investments to achieve the necessary shift in supply, and consumers joining companies in advocating for governments to create the policy frameworks that will be essential to stimulating demand for clean technologies and providing the foundation for the clean energy transition.

This tension, of course, is not new. While Citi plays an enabling role in the transition to a net zero economy, we understand that it cannot occur overnight. We have to be thoughtful with the transition, meeting our clients where they are in their efforts, and then helping and pushing them to accelerate their low-carbon transitions.

Similarly, our efforts to expand financial access and opportunity have also gained new urgency. We have engaged every level of our business to think and act in support of equity and the goal of helping close the racial wealth gap and increase economic mobility in the United States. In order to effectively do this work and serve our clients and communities, we’ve set – and recently exceeded – talent representation goals to further diversify our own workforce and make progress toward pay equity at Citi.

We also continue to advance financial inclusion in underserved communities globally, expanding the scope of our work to areas such as healthcare, education, affordable housing and basic infrastructure. These efforts have become even more important amidst surging inflation and an emerging global food crisis that could be devastating for the world’s poorest countries, which import much of their food and where households spend more than half of their income on food.

There are, of course, lessons to learn and apply to these challenges, particularly from the pandemic.

COVID-19's disregard for borders underscored the interconnectedness of society. It also reminded us that global challenges demand a global, collective response. As the world becomes more fragmented, it is even more important for our global community of business to come together to confront the big challenges of our time.

At Citi, this sense of responsibility is something that continues to shape our decisions, business strategy, and firm-wide goals and commitments. We continue to be focused on action and partnering with like-minded organizations that are also doing the work. And for us, it’s not just about the big numbers; it’s the small number – helping society get closer to zero. Zero carbon emissions. Zero wealth gap. Zero pay gap. Zero poverty. Some might say this is idealistic but having ambitious goals is what helps us make meaningful progress. And it’s going to take all of us, working together, to make sure we continue to go in the right direction.

I invite you to learn more about these initiatives in our 2021 ESG Report. Our ESG agenda is not a separate layer that sits above what we do day-to-day. It is an effort that we began at Citi many years ago that has become core to who we are as a company and our daily worth as a bank. While our efforts will continue to evolve to reflect new global challenges, our commitment to transparency and accountability will remain constant. We will continue to share our progress and lessons learned, and we will continue to innovate and push to use our core capabilities, expertise and talent to lead by example and demonstrate how Citi is truly a bank with a brain and a soul.