Paris, Lyon, Rennes, Strasbourg, Bordeaux, Grenoble… Fourteen socialist and environmental mayors have published a forum on the website of JDD Saturday. They call on the banks, as the COP27 opens in Egypt, to stop financing fossil fuels to move towards “a more sustainable economy”.
The text is signed by the PS mayors of Paris Anne Hidalgo and Rennes Nathalie Appéré, and the EELV mayors of Lyon Grégory Doucet, Strasbourg Jeanne Barseghian, Bordeaux Pierre Hurmic and Grenoble Eric Piolle. “We formally call on financial actors to stop supporting the development of coal, oil and gas,” they write.
Indeed, “fossil fuels are the main driver of climate change, their extractions are often accompanied by environmental and biodiversity devastation, a lack of respect for human rights and an intensification of conflicts. “, they plead.
A threat to their loans?
“While consuming the coal, oil and gas from mines and wells currently in operation would lead to warming well above 1.5°C, financial players continue to massively support companies that develop new oil and gas projects, denounce these aediles. We act at our level by promoting sustainable development that respects the environment […] locally, but also by financing these actions through more responsible banking partners”.
Thus, explain these mayors, “when we borrow, we put and will now put the different banks in competition [également sur des] criteria concerning the end of support for the development of fossil fuels and tax havens, and in favor of equality between women and men”. The elected officials hope “that more and more communities will join” them.