Interview of Ilya Polyakov at the Paris Infraweek 2024

Video transcript

Live from the Paris Infraweek 2024, I'm delighted to be here with Ilya Polyakov.

You are Deputy Head of Global Banking and Advisory at Societe Generale.
What are the decarbonisation ambitions of a company like Societe Generale?
Societe Generale has been involved in the energy transition sector for over 20 years.
Societe Generale has made very strong commitments in this domain, with a commitment to reduce our exposure to traditional oil and gas by 80% by 2030 compared with our exposure in 2019.
Today, we are in the middle of the cycle in 2025 and we have already reached the target of more than 50%.
Our reduction today is more than 50% compared with the target set a year ago.
We are one of the banks doing the most in reducing our footprint in traditional oil and gas.
At the same time, we are increasing our commitments to financing the energy transition.
Last Thursday, we announced a very ambitious new target of €500 billion by 2030 to finance projects in the energy transition, in the sustainable finance, including €400 billion in financing and €100 billion in capital/debt markets.
This is our new target for 2030 to support the energy transition sector.

Very good. We are at the Paris Infraweek. What role does infrastructure financing play in this decarbonisation strategy?
Infrastructure financing is a key element in the decarbonisation agenda.
The major sectors linked to infrastructure play a major role in the energy transition.
So sectors such as mobility, transports in general and airports are among the sectors we need to prioritise to decarbonise our planet.
We have built up considerable expertise in these sectors, in the entire mobility chain, the transport chain, by investing substantial amounts in financing and also in advisory to decarbonise transport and mobility.
At the same time, we have also made a recent investment as part of our energy transition investment package.
We talked about this a year ago. It's a package of €1 billion dedicated to the energy transition, including 700 million in equity.
We have deployed the first 250 by investing in Reed Management, a fund in which Societe Generale will have a majority stake and which will invest in what we call the emerging leaders in energy transition technology.
This is another example of Societe Generale's commitment to support the energy transition agenda.