BNP Paribas is regularly attacked by NGOs for its financing of the fossil fuel industry. This Thursday, the banking giant updated its climate policy on Thursday, announcing in particular the cessation of “all financing dedicated to the development of new gas fields”, according to a press release.
This policy contrasts with the practice of recent years, during which it has regularly participated in the financing of new projects. On the other hand, it does not refrain from financing companies developing new fields, as long as the money is not directly allocated to this type of project. On oil, the bank announces “the cessation of financing dedicated to the development of new oil fields regardless of the financing methods”.
Divide oil and extraction financing by five
This is the formalization of a practice already in force since the group had stated in January that it had not directly financed new oil projects since 2016. However, as with gas, the bank continues to support companies that can develop new fields, without directly financing the project.
BNP Paribas also provides for the “scheduled stoppage” of financing for players specializing in oil exploration and production and who would not initiate a transition, as well as “the reduction in the share of generalist loans attributable to exploration and production petroleum”. These commitments stem from the previously stated objective of wanting to divide by five by 2030 its financing to the oil extraction and production sector.
“Insufficient” measures for NGOs
These “welcome” measures, however, remain “largely insufficient” compared to what is expected of the banking sector to limit global warming to 1.5°C compared to the pre-industrial era, reacted in a press release Lucie Pinson, director of the NGO Reclaim Finance, calling on “BNP Paribas to go through with the process undertaken by requiring its customers to stop developing projects that it no longer intends to finance directly”.
The environmental NGOs Oxfam, Notre Affaire A Tous and Friends of the Earth, which had taken BNP to court in early February for breach of its duty of vigilance in the face of global warming, also denounced in a joint press release ” measures too weak to meet a clear scientific requirement” and promised to be present at the general meeting of the bank the following week.
Record profits
BNP Paribas, which achieved a record net profit of 4.4 billion euros in the first quarter, has set itself targets for reducing the intensity of emissions from its activities in the steel sectors (-25 % by 2030), aluminum (-10%) and cement (-24%), i.e. the volume of CO2 per tonne of material produced, compared to 2021 or 2022.
The group had in the past defined commitments for the oil and gas, power generation and automotive sectors.