Our Group executive chairman, Ana Botín, travelled to Greenland with the team that produces Mediaset's Planeta Calleja programme to see the effects of global warming on the ground.

In the last week of August 2019, Ana Botín accompanied Jesús Calleja, a Spanish explorer and adventurer, and Ramón Larramendi, one of the all-time leading figures in polar exploration, on a trip through southern Greenland. They were able to first see first-hand the impact of human activity on the planet. 

This adventure was filmed for television by Mediaset, which broadcast the entire programme on 8 January 2020 on almost all its channels (Cuatro, Telecinco, Energy and Divinity). 

During the programme, Ana Botín looks back at some of the highlights of her personal and professional career, and examines some of the issues surrounding the financial sector, such as the reputation of the banking industry and digital transformation. 

Our Group executive chairman's participation in this programme was an excellent opportunity for Santander Group to convey its concern with the environment and our bank's commitment to responsibly contributing to a more sustainable society.  

At Santander, because we are committed to fighting climate change we have undertaken to mobilise €220 billion for green investments by 2030. In addition, at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP25) held in December 2019 in Madrid, we announced our commitment to be carbon neutral in 2020 by offsetting all the emissions generated in our daily activity. These and other measures have made us the most sustainable bank in the world, according to the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI), the leading international benchmark of the sustainability of companies' environmental, economic, social and corporate governance policies. 

In the words of Ana Botín, climate change “is an issue that should concern each of us personally, but it is also of the utmost importance for business leaders – many of our institutional shareholders now require this of us, and rightly so – for governments, for society as a whole. Taking action is a priority and it is urgent”.