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Citibank Korea sees growing role for finance in carbon neutrality push

Published: 16 Apr. 2026, 14:16 Updated: 16 Apr. 2026, 17:53

JIN MIN-JI
[email protected]

Citibank Korea Managing Director Kim Kyoung-ho speaks at the 13th Climate Action Roundtable (CART) held at the Four Seasons Hotel in central Seoul on April 15. [CITIBANK KOREA]

Carbon neutrality is no longer optional but a sweeping shift reshaping economies and societies, Citibank Korea Managing Director Kim Kyoung-ho said, stressing the need for financial institutions to support the green transition.

“As climate action becomes a core corporate priority, the role of transition finance in securing a sustainable future has become more important than ever,” Kim said at the 13th Climate Action Roundtable (CART) held at the Four Seasons Hotel in central Seoul on Wednesday.

“Finance lies at the heart of climate action, moving beyond its traditional role as a capital provider to guide and support the broader industrial ecosystem toward a smooth transition to a sustainable, low-carbon system,” he added.

Specific measures to achieve green finance were noted by the keynote speaker, Kim Jong-dae, a business professor at Inha University.

“In a bid to expand green finance, demand rather than supply should be the focus,” Kim said. “If you push finance into areas without underlying demand, it will flow into highly inefficient uses,” he said, adding that “as green projects expand across industries, green finance will naturally grow as well.”

He also said the government should act not merely as a capital provider but as an ecosystem builder, arguing that green investment can only be activated when regulators and rating agencies, as well as asset managers and investors, operate in an integrated manner.

CART is an annual conference sponsored by Citibank Korea and co-hosted by the World Wide Fund for Nature, the United Nations Global Compact Network Korea and the Korea Sustainability Investing Forum.

BY JIN MIN-JI [[email protected]]