Citigroup Pledges to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Joins U.S. EPA Climate Leader Program

Business Wire, Jan 23, 2006

NEW YORK -- Demonstrating its ongoing commitment to environmental and social issues globally, Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) today announced a commitment to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions on a global basis by 10% by 2011. To accelerate this reduction, Citigroup is joining the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Climate Leader Program. This voluntary industry-government partnership identifies environmental leaders in adopting aggressive goals and strategies for curtailing greenhouse gas emissions at manufacturing and other facilities. Citigroup will partner with an EPA-appointed engineer to enhance its on-going global emissions reduction strategy.

"We are excited to be part of this voluntary program. As the largest financial services company in the world, we believe that we have an obligation to support this initiative to help clean up the environment and reduce the impact of greenhouse gas emissions," said Citigroup CEO Chuck Prince. "Our global footprint of facilities is nearly 90 million square feet in size. This represents an enormous opportunity for us to continue tracking and reducing the emissions from our offices, retails outlets and ATM locations."

Since 2003, Citigroup has been monitoring and reporting its greenhouse gas emissions and working toward reducing those emissions at its more than 13,000 facilities worldwide. In 2006 Citigroup will expand this initiative by taking action to reduce consumption of energy and other resources.

This initiative is the latest in Citigroup's efforts to building a program of Social Responsibility worldwide. Citigroup is a founding member of the Equator Principles, voluntary guidelines based on World Bank and International Finance Corporation (IFC) policies to evaluate environmental and social risks related to financing development projects. Citigroup is also recognized for its leadership in ensuring access to financial education and financial products and services, financing affordable housing construction, and encouraging volunteerism among its 300,000 employees. Citigroup also is a longstanding supporter of microfinance, which includes support of microcredit programs through philanthropic giving.

Citigroup joins the 79 corporations, including Xerox, the Gap, Frito-Lay, DuPont and General Motors, who have already pledged their commitment to lowering emissions through this EPA-sponsored program. With today's announcements, 46 companies have set GHG reduction goals. EPA estimates that these goals will prevent more than 8 million metric tons of carbon emissions equivalents per year. These reductions are equal to the annual greenhouse gas emissions of 5 million cars.

Since its inception in 2002, Climate Leaders has grown to include 79 corporations whose U.S. emissions represent 8 percent of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.

Citigroup (NYSE: C), the leading global financial services company has some 200 million customer accounts and does business in more than 100 countries, providing consumers, corporations, governments and institutions with a broad range of financial products and services, including consumer banking and credit, corporate and investment banking, securities brokerage, and wealth management. Major brand names under Citigroup's trademark red umbrella include Citibank, CitiFinancial, Primerica, Smith Barney and Banamex. Additional information may be found at www.citigroup.com