ESG at Klarna

Download 2024 ESG Report  

Our ESG Strategy

 

As Klarna grows, so does our responsibility to our stakeholders, society, and the planet. We recognize our impact on key ESG issues, including consumers’ financial wellbeing and stability, climate change, and human rights—and how these issues affect our business.

 

Klarna is committed to setting a new standard in environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance. We do this by empowering consumers to take control of their finances, promoting ethical and transparent business practices, and supporting global climate solutions that drive meaningful climate action. Our approach includes enabling responsible spending, advancing financial literacy, preventing financial crime, and fostering an inclusive and empowering workplace for our employees.

 

Strong corporate governance underpins all our ESG efforts. By maintaining robust sustainability governance, we aim to build and preserve trust with our stakeholders. We believe responsible, efficient, and sustainable business practices are essential to good governance and long-term value creation.

ESG Focus Areas

Our key ESG focus areas reflect Klarna’s commitment to addressing the most material sustainability challenges identified through our materiality assessment:


Climate action: We are committed to making a meaningful contribution to global climate goals: we are reducing our greenhouse gas emissions towards our 2040 Net Zero goal and we support the innovative climate solutions needed to reach global Net Zero with annual climate contributions, financed through our internal carbon fee. 


Social responsibility: We proactively support financial wellness and stability for our consumers by offering tools that promote responsible spending and financial literacy.
Additionally, we prioritize working conditions for both our employees and workers within our value chain, ensuring fair labor practices, safety, and inclusivity. We are committed to equal treatment and opportunities by promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion. 

Governance: Strong corporate governance is fundamental to our business. We are committed to transparency and ethical governance, ensuring compliance with all regulatory frameworks, including anti-money laundering, countering terrorist financing, and sanctions regulations. Klarna also upholds corporate culture that reflects integrity and responsible business conduct.

ESG Oversight

At Klarna, corporate governance is structured to integrate sustainability and ESG risks and opportunities into decision-making processes across the organization. The governance framework involves the Board of Directors, the Group Management Team, the Audit, Compliance & Risk Committee (ACRC), and the Remuneration Oversight Director (ROD), all of which play critical roles in ensuring Klarna's sustainability objectives are aligned with business goals.

ESG Governance

ESG Materiality Assessment

Klarna’s materiality assessment is prepared in accordance with the guidelines set by the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and follows a double materiality approach. We consider how sustainability issues affect Klarna’s performance and how Klarna’s activities impact people, the planet, and long-term value creation.

Our materiality map reflects our analysis of significant ESG factors, categorized under:

  • Financial materiality: Evaluating risks and opportunities that influence Klarna’s financial performance, such as regulatory changes and market shifts related to climate action.

  • Impact materiality: Assessing Klarna’s environmental and social impacts, including emissions, biodiversity, and human rights within our operations and supply chain.

Klarna Materiality Matrix

Klarna Material Topics

Key ESG Initiatives

Financial wellness

Klarna actively supports financial wellness by offering tools that promote responsible spending and financial literacy.

  • Budgeting tool: Our app includes a budgeting feature that allows consumers to set monthly spending limits and track their expenses in real-time, helping them stay on top of their finances.

  • Spending insights: We provide personalized spending insights to help consumers understand their financial habits, empowering them to make smarter financial decisions.

Conscious shopping

Klarna encourages conscious shopping by providing consumers with information that helps them make smarter purchasing decisions.

  • Conscious brands: Klarna highlights brands with strong sustainability credentials, making it easier for consumers to shop with companies that align with their values.

  • Resell: Our resell feature allows consumers to easily list and sell items they no longer need, encouraging second hand purchases and reducing waste.

  • Second hand vs. new: Klarna provides comparisons between buying new and second hand products, helping consumers save money and make more environmentally conscious choices.

Corporate citizenship

Klarna advances corporate citizenship by supporting high-impact initiatives that empower communities to adapt to climate change and build long-term resilience.

  • AI for Climate Resilience program: We support innovators using artificial intelligence to create practical climate adaptation solutions for vulnerable communities, combining funding with technical support, mentorship, and opportunities to scale.

  • Nature and climate solutions: We fund high-impact projects that protect and restore natural ecosystems and address systemic climate challenges through biodiversity and nature-based climate solutions that strengthen local knowledge and community capacity to respond to climate impacts.

Climate action

We are committed to reducing our climate impact and contributing to global climate solutions.

  • Internal carbon fee: We levy an internal carbon fee on our annual GHG emissions and use the resulting funds to support innovative climate action projects through the Climate Transformation Fund.

  • Emission reductions: We have ambitious GHG emission reduction targets in line with the Science Based Targets Initiative to set clear milestones on our journey to reach Net Zero emissions across our value chain by 2040.

Reporting

As part of our commitment to transparency, we align our non-financial disclosures with global best-practice frameworks. Our ESG Report details sustainability programs, policies, and metrics, following leading standards such as the European Union (EU) Taxonomy, Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), Non-Financial Reporting Directive (NFRD), and Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD).


We report on our environmental, social, and governance strategies and performance in the ESG section of the 2025 Annual Report.

 

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