IJGlobal ESG Financial Adviser 2025 – Societe Generale

Societe General was selected by the independent panel of judges to win the ESG award for financial adviser with one saying the French bank has been “instrumental in many of the most important energy transition projects” during the judging period.

One judge thought Societe Generale should win “in recognition of financial advisory efforts on the groundbreaking Net Zero Teesside and NEP CO2 transportation and storage infrastructure project”.

Another added: “SocGen's financing provides dynamic support to different decarbonisation projects and is having real world impact.”

And yet another judge said: “Societe Generale is having a significant impact, advising on multiple innovative projects globally. Their work is moving the needle across sectors with a real purpose of helping to transition to a more sustainable, lower-carbon world.”

The SocGen submission – obviously – leads with the role it played on shepherding Northern Endurance Partnership (NEP) and NZT Power over the line.

Societe Generale leveraged energy transition expertise advising 2 of most highly visible and pioneering project financings closed globally over the judging period for the development of innovative infrastructure and projects that will contribute to decarbonisation.

Net Zero Teesside Power is a fully integrated gas-fired power and carbon capture project, to make Teesside the UK’s first decarbonised industrial cluster.

Meanwhile, its associated NEP is the CO2 transportation and storage infrastructure to serve NZT POWER and a diverse range of other East Coast Cluster projects transporting CO2 via a pipeline system for storage in the Endurance saline aquifer.

These projects support efforts to transform the Teesside and Humber regions into a low-carbon industrial hub by securing offshore CO2 storage and reducing the UK's industrial emissions.

Societe Generale worked with the sponsors and UK government to deliver these landmark projects that will play a key role in removing significant amounts of CO2 emissions (up to an initial 4 million tonnes of CO2/year) while also creating a template for future carbon capture utilisation and storage (CCUS) developments, positioning the French bank at the forefront of the industry.

Another transaction SocGen worked on was the Stegra Boden Water Treatment Plant, structuring financing for critical ancillary infrastructure for a sustainable water treatment plant to be developed by John Laing under an innovative corporate private-to-private partnership (PtPP) to operate Stegra’s green steel plant to.

This facility will supply demineralised water to the electrolysers used to create green hydrogen and purified water used in system cooling, as well as treating wastewater from the plant, returning 99.9% of the process water back to the system.

It was yet another milestone for the world’s first large-scale green steel plant in Boden, Sweden, following its landmark €4.2 billion project financing that closed in April 2024 on which Societe Generale acted as adviser and MLA.

Another transaction that SocGen highlights in its submission is Baltica 2, the landmark offshore wind farm (OWF) in Poland, where it acted as financial adviser to Polish energy utility PGE for the €3 billion financing of its share in the OWF to be developed by PGE and Ørsted.

Baltica 2 is the biggest offshore wind energy by capacity in the Polish part of the Baltic Sea. The project is part of the first phase of the Polish Offshore Wind Programme launched in 2021 which allocated a total capacity of 5.9GW and an additional total capacity of 12GW via auctions in its second phase.

The financing was provided by international and Polish commercial lenders, with the EIB, EBRD, Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego and Denmark’s EIFO participating.

With 1,498MW installed capacity, Baltica 2 is also one of the largest offshore wind farm projects in Europe. Upon completion (in 2027), it will allow for producing energy from wind for around 2.4 million recipients and will materially change Poland's energy mix.

By 2040, a large amount of coal-fired capacity will be withdrawn from the national energy system. Offshore wind farms will be critical to reducing the carbon footprint of Poland's electricity system and strengthening energy security.