NEWS
UoB Academy Notes the Role of Green Banking in Reducing the Electronic Footprint
Sakhir – University of Bahrain (Khadijah Abdusalem)
27 November 2023
Dawla Abdulla Almulla, a faculty member at the College of Business Administration at the University of Bahrain, called for the adoption of green banking, which contributes to reducing climate change and preserving the environment, during a lecture she gave to the employees of the Bank of Bahrain and Kuwait (BBK).
About 80 employees participated in the lecture, which was held remotely via Microsoft Teams platform recently, titled “Green Banking”.
Almulla pointed to the concept of green banking and how to adopt its strategies in providing banking services and financing, so that it relies on environmentally friendly practices, to protect current and future generations.
Almulla introduced participants to the emergence of “green banking”, which appeared in 2008, with banks using some concepts such as “green bonds”, and then the concept of “green banking” officially appeared in 2015, after the Paris Agreement to confront climate change and its negative effects, and the adoption of sustainable development goals.
“In 2022, Saudi Arabia and the UAE were able to enter the list of leading countries issuing green bonds, with Saudi banks contributing about $3 billion and the UAE contributing about $1.48 billion,” Almulla said.
She added that the contributions of Gulf countries to green bonds are expected to increase after the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 28), which the UAE will host in Expo City Dubai on November 28-29, 2023.
The faculty member in the Accounting Department reviewed three strategies for implementing green banking: promoting green banking in the bank’s internal operations, promoting green banking in banking services provided to customers, and contributing to the provision of green finance.
Almulla stressed that the digital transformation in the Kingdom of Bahrain has contributed significantly to reducing the carbon footprint of operations such as: withdrawing and depositing cash and providing green loans by issuing environmentally friendly financing products, such as issuing green bonds to finance mega projects in renewable energy.
For his part, Dr. Abdulla Khalid Al Jalahma, Acting Head of the College of Business Administration, praised the efforts of faculty members in achieving change and development, stressing the importance of these participations in developing academic skills and practices, and working closely with the university’s partners in the community to achieve the sustainable development goals.
