CSO Insights: How a big Malaysian bank balances climate, nature, human rights and economic inclusion

How are corporate leaders navigating the changing sustainability landscape? To help answer that question, the All Things Sustainable podcast has launched CSO Insights, a new miniseries that brings listeners interviews with Chief Sustainability Officers across industries and around the world. Today we're talking with Luanne Sieh, Group Chief Sustainability Officer at CIMB Group, one of Malaysia's largest banks. Luanne says CIMB takes a "holistic" view of climate, nature, human rights and economic inclusion. She outlines the bank's 2030 emissions reduction targets for six priority sectors, including palm oil — an important contributor to Malaysia's GDP and a significant part of CIMB's portfolio. "We are one of the largest financiers of palm oil globally," Luanne says. "We think that our role here is to really reshape the industries and the clients, or help to reshape them — and not to retreat from them." Listen to the first episode of our CSO Insights series: CSO Insights: How sustainability pullback is playing out in Southeast Asia | S&P Global Listen to our podcast interview with big Malaysian pension fund Employees Provident Fund (EPF): Why one of Southeast Asia's largest pension funds is 'doubling down' on sustainability | S&P Global Read research from S&P Global Sustainable1 about companies' nature risks and dependencies: How the world's largest companies depend on nature and biodiversity | S&P Global Read our research about the costs of climate physical risk: For the world's largest companies, climate physical risks have a $1.2 trillion annual price tag by the 2050s | S&P Global The All Things Sustainable podcast from S&P Global will be an official media partner of The Nest Climate Campus during Climate Week NYC. Register free to attend here . This piece was published by S&P Global Sustainable1 and not by S&P Global Ratings, which is a separately managed division of S&P Global. Copyright ©2025 by S&P Global DISCLAIMER By accessing this Podcast, I acknowledge that S&P GLOBAL makes no warranty, guarantee, or representation as to the accuracy or sufficiency of the information featured in this Podcast. The information, opinions, and recommendations presented in this Podcast are for general information only and any reliance on the information provided in this Podcast is done at your own risk. Any unauthorized use, facilitation or encouragement of a third party's unauthorized use (including without limitation copy, distribution, transmission or modification, use as part of generative artificial intelligence or for training any artificial intelligence models) of this Podcast or any related information is not permitted without S&P Global's prior consent subject to appropriate licensing and shall be deemed an infringement, violation, breach or contravention of the rights of S&P Global or any applicable third-party (including any copyright, trademark, patent, rights of privacy or publicity or any other proprietary rights). This Podcast should not be considered professional advice. Unless specifically stated otherwise, S&P GLOBAL does not endorse, approve, recommend, or certify any information, product, process, service, or organization presented or mentioned in this Podcast, and information from this Podcast should not be referenced in any way to imply such approval or endorsement. The third party materials or content of any third party site referenced in this Podcast do not necessarily reflect the opinions, standards or policies of S&P GLOBAL. S&P GLOBAL assumes no responsibility or liability for the accuracy or completeness of the content contained in third party materials or on third party sites referenced in this Podcast or the compliance with applicable laws of such materials and/or links referenced herein. Moreover, S&P GLOBAL makes no warranty that this Podcast, or the server that makes it available, is free of viruses, worms, or other elements or codes that manifest contaminating or destructive properties. S&P GLOBAL EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL LIABILITY OR RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR OTHER DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF ANY INDIVIDUAL'S USE OF, REFERENCE TO, RELIANCE ON, OR INABILITY TO USE, THIS PODCAST OR THE INFORMATION PRESENTED IN THIS PODCAST.