Kakao Bank pledges $2 million to Unicef to support youth in climate-vulnerable regions

Kakao Bank, the internet-only banking subsidiary of Korean tech conglomerate Kakao, has pledged $2 million to Unicef to support youth in climate-vulnerable regions of Southeast Asia.

Kakao Bank CEO Yun Ho-young, center, poses for a commemorative photo with Kanetaka Sawako, right, lead of Unicef’s Asia-Pacific hub, and Cho Mi-jin, secretary general of the Korean Committee for Unicef, after signing a global partnership agreement on climate crisis response for future generations at the Unicef Korea office on July 28. [KAKAO BANK]

Kakao Bank, the internet-only banking subsidiary of Korean tech conglomerate Kakao, has pledged $2 million to Unicef to support youth in climate-vulnerable regions of Southeast Asia, the company announced Tuesday.

The commitment, made through a two-year partnership with Unicef’s global headquarters and its Korean office, aims to help children and teenagers in Indonesia, Cambodia and Thailand cope with the effects of extreme heat and related environmental challenges.

In Indonesia, the funds will support sanitation and clean water access in schools. In Cambodia, the donation will go toward building infrastructure to reduce heat exposure for students. In Thailand, Kakao Bank will fund an educational conference focused on global warming, with a parallel goal of encouraging youth engagement in local climate policy initiatives.

The donation is part of the bank’s broader corporate social responsibility (CSR) program, under which it allocates approximately $1 million annually to international aid and climate-related projects. Last year, Kakao Bank donated a similar sum to Unicef for infrastructure development in Myanmar and Laos including solar-powered medical and school facilities and projects focused on food security and water access, as well as education in Malaysia and Thailand.

The new partnership agreement was signed Monday at Unicef Korea’s office in Mapo District, western Seoul, by senior executives from both organizations.

“Kakao Bank is the only Korean company partnering with Unicef on initiatives addressing the climate crisis,” CEO Yun Ho-young said in a statement. “We are committed to expanding our social contributions to support vulnerable communities across borders and under mounting environmental pressures.”

Unicef has increasingly emphasized the need to build climate resilience for children in the Global South, where rising temperatures and erratic weather disproportionately affect education, health and safety. Kakao Bank’s partnership adds to a growing number of private-sector collaborations aimed at advancing this goal.

BY KIM JU-YEON [kim.juyeon2@joongang.co.kr]