SSE PLC

SSE ISSUES NEW SUSTAINABILITY FRAMEWORK

SSE, the leading electricity infrastructure company, has published an updated Sustainability Financing Framework (the "Framework"), that represents the next step of maturity in SSE's approach to sustainable financing and will help deliver its ambitious net zero-focused growth strategy.

SSE is already one of the largest issuers of Green Bonds in the UK having raised £2.5bn since 2017. 

The new Framework merges SSE's Green Bond and Sustainability-Linked Bond frameworks and the aim of this new Framework is to facilitate transparency through high quality disclosure in SSE's Green and Sustainability-Linked financing for interested stakeholders. To achieve this, SSE has aligned the Framework to the following key external frameworks and standards:

• Include all green and sustainability linked financing under one document, therefore aligning the Framework to the ICMA's Green Bond Principles 2021 and Sustainability Linked Bond Principles 2023 and to the Loan Market Association's Green Loan Principles 2023 and Sustainability Linked Loan Principles 2023. Therefore, the Framework applies also to Green Loans, Sustainability-Linked Loans and any other Use of Proceeds or General Corporate Purpose instrument (e.g., hybrid bonds, convertible bonds, commercial paper, derivatives instruments, or other forms of financial instrument available).

• Alignment of the Use of Proceeds Framework with the Technical Screening Criteria of the EU Taxonomy for sustainable activities - a cornerstone of the EU's sustainable finance framework and an important market transparency tool.

Green Projects eligible under this framework comply with the Technical Screening Criteria defined as making a substantial contribution to the climate change mitigation environmental objective. SSE will align with the requirements of the Do No Significant Harm (DNSH) criteria, as well as the minimum safeguards outlined in Regulation (EU) 2020/ 852 on a best-efforts basis.

Gregor Alexander, SSE's Finance Director, said: "Investments in clean and low-carbon infrastructure are a win-win for the economy and the climate. By financing these investments through green bonds and sustainability-linked instruments, we are helping to attract more capital into initiatives that will accelerate progress towards net zero while holding ourselves to account on wider sustainability efforts. This new, enhanced Framework underlines our commitment to green finance, while we also remain focused on the important qualities of optionality, agility and discipline for future financing.

This Framework will help us secure the funding required for our Net Zero Acceleration Programme Plus investments, and will enable us to continue to deliver cleaner, more secure and more affordable energy."

Notes

The Framework along with DNV's opinion can be found at https://www.sse.com/SustainabilityFinancingFramework . This site also contains SSE's recently published Green Bond report along with an Assurance Report from PwC.