Nordea today announced its decision to become a carbon-neutral company by the end of 2015 by offsetting its own operational emissions.

The declaration, which will see the financial services group reach a net zero carbon footprint by the end of December 2015, came before the UN Climate Change Conference taking place in Paris from 30 November to 11 December 2015, offering the business community the opportunity to show low-carbon leadership.

"Climate change is one of the greatest risks we face; tackling it is also one of our biggest economic opportunities," commented Gunn Wærsted, Head of Wealth Management and Chairman of Nordea's CSR Committee. "It is in the interest of the business community to take steps towards a low-carbon economy and to push policymakers to take further action."

In 2014, the company's total direct emissions stood at 45,462 metric tonnes of CO2. By reducing own emissions and purchasing renewable energy and carbons offets equal to the amount of of CO2 emitted, Nordea hopes to become a carbon-neutral company. Nordea also indirectly contributes to carbon emissions in its capacity as a financier of companies with such emissions as part of their operations.

"We will of course discuss climate change and how it affects the strategies of our existing customers," continued Wærsted. "We are keen to understand how they think and prepare for challenges and opportunities. We have decided not to start new customer relationships with companies primarily dependent on coal."

Nordea was recently scored at a superior level in a ranking of corporate efforts to mitigate climate change by the CDP, an international non-profit organisation which discloses the greenhouse gas emissions of major corporations and so ranks corporate efforts to alleviate their impact on climate change.

In the 2015 CDP report, Nordea scored 100 out of 100 for carbon disclosure and was ranked in performance band B, on a scale from A to E. The company also decided to join the We Mean Business initiative, involving a coalition of organisations working with business and investors for a low carbon economy.