Total for its Tilenga and EACOP oil projects in Africa. Casino for its role in deforestation in the Amazon. Or, quite recently, Danone for its management of its plastic pollution… Environmental NGOs have taken advantage of the “duty of care”, a foundation introduced by a law of February 2017 into French law. It obliges certain French multinationals to identify and prevent the risks of serious damage to the environment caused by their own activities and those of their subsidiaries, in France and abroad. And expose them to legal action in the event of breaches.
The list of companies attacked is still growing this Thursday since Oxfam, Friends of the Earth And Our business to all sue BNP Paribas before the Paris court.
A world first?
On October 26, they began by giving formal notice to the leading European bank * to comply with its due diligence obligations. But the banking group’s response, sent at the end of January, did not convince, so they are moving on to the next step on Thursday. “This is the first time that a bank has been attacked on the basis of the duty of vigilance, but it is also the first climate litigation in the world targeting a commercial bank”, assures Lorette Philippot, in charge of the “private finance” campaign at the Friends of the Earth.
The three NGOs did not target BNP Paribas by chance. “Between 2016 and 2021, it was the first bank in Europe – and the fifth worldwide – to finance the development of fossil fuels, continues Lorette Philippot. It was also, over this period, the first global financier of the eight European and American oil and gas majors (Total, Chevron, Exxon Mobil, Shell, etc.), which continue to develop new fossil projects. “A support that goes badly for these three NGOs, while the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), joined by the International Energy Agency (IEA) in May 2021calls for the immediate abandonment of any new fossil fuel project if we want to limit global warming to below 1.5°C*.
“A strong leader in financing the energy transition”, describes itself as BNP
On the BNP Paribas side, the discourse is quite different. In a press release dated January 24, the bank presents itself as an asserted leader in the financing of the energy transition, and even said that it was “initiating a new stage of strong acceleration” in this direction. The banking group recalls being on “an already very advanced exit from coal”. It is aiming for a complete cessation of its financing to companies in the sector by 2030 in the EU, and 2040 for the rest of the world.
BNP also says it has initiated an exit from oil. The group indicates that it has not financed any projects since 2016 and is committed, by 2030, to reducing by 80% the outstanding financing for oil extraction and production. Or the total amount of loans granted for these activities and which will not yet have been repaid in 2030. From the current 5 billion euros, the outstanding amount would increase to one billion.
Finally, on natural gas, BNP Paribas is aiming to reduce its outstanding financing by more than 30% by 2030 and says that it will henceforth reserve its financing, in this sector, for new generation thermal power stations, which emit low greenhouse gases. greenhouse, and securing supplies**.
Commitments to read between the lines
Not bad ? Alexandre Poidatz, advocacy officer at Oxfam, invites us to read between the lines. “On oil and gas, commitments are essentially restricted to outstandings, he points out. This makes it possible to set aside a whole set of financing granted by BNP Paribas to companies in the sector. Not included, for example, is the stock and bond issuance assistance it provides to oil and gas companies. For the latter, it is a way – increasingly important – to find new financing which can then go, potentially, to their fossil projects. »
Above all, the issues are not limited to funding and aid. “Through the key role they play, in particular BNP, they have a major power of influence to put their clients on the path to transition,” continues Alexandre Poidatz. BNP Paribas does it on coal. Since 2020, it has pledged to exclude companies that do not have a coal phase-out date from its clients. But it does not have similar requirements on oil and gas. »
The start of a long affair?
This is then one of the demands of Oxfam, Friends of the Earth and Notre Affaire à tous: that BNP Paribas’ requirements on coal be duplicated on the other two fossil fuels. They also want justice to force the bank to “immediately stop all financial support – financing and investments – for companies that develop new fossil projects”. “We are not asking for money, notes François de Cambiaire, lawyer for the firm Seattle Lawyer, counsel to the NGOs in this case. But simply that BNP applies the law on the duty of vigilance by ensuring that its activities are well aligned with the objective of limiting global warming to 1.5°C. »
This Wednesday should mark the start of a long legal battle, “probably lasting several years, expects Lorette Philippot. In previous climate disputes, we have always seen the multinationals or the countries concerned play the clock.