Friends of the Earth France, Oxfam France and Notre Affaire à Tous urge the banking establishment to comply with its commitments in the fight against climate change.
The bank is called to account. Friends of the Earth France, Oxfam France and Notre Affaire à Tous are suing BNP Paribas on Thursday, February 23, denouncing the financial support of the French banking group for new fossil fuel development projects. It’s about “first climate litigation in the world aimed at commercial bank”, point out the three environmental defense NGOs in a joint press release. Together, they had already taken the banking establishment to court on October 26, and note that since then “BNP Paribas has not taken the most urgent measure in terms of science: to end its financial support for the expansion of fossil fuels”, they point out.
To justify this legal action, the NGOs claim non-compliance with the law on the duty of vigilance of multinationals. This text, promulgated in 2017, obliges certain multinationals to “preventing serious violations of human rights, the health and safety of people and the environment” related to their activities.
However, for the campaign manager for Notre Affaire à Tous, Justine Ripoll, quoted in the press release, “the financial sector has a huge responsibility in our collective ability to respect or not the Paris agreement”, the text aimed at limiting the rise in global temperatures below a threshold beyond which disasters and shortages would become commonplace.
The financing of new oil and gas projects, incompatible with the Paris agreement
Pointing “its contribution to global warming through its financing and investments in the coal, oil and gas industry”, NGOs accuse BNP Paribas of being “the first European and fifth largest financier of the development of fossil fuels between 2016 and 2021”. The Change de banque site, developed by the NGO Reclaim Finance, considers that BNP Paribas is “by far the French bank whose activities have the biggest impact on the climate”, with “more than 142 billion dollars allocated to the fossil fuel sector (coal, oil and gas) since the Paris agreement.”
However, according to a report published in 2021 (PDF, in English) by the International Energy Agency (IEA), achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 and complying with the Paris Agreement is only possible if no new energy projects are launched.exploitation of fossil fuels. “We demand that the bank ceases all support for the expansion of fossil fuels and truly aligns its activities to limit global warming to 1.5°C, in line with the objectives of the Paris agreement”therefore let the three complainant associations know, “determined to obtain a binding decision from the judge”, according to Alexandre Poidatz, advocacy manager at Oxfam France.
“BNP Paribas continues to issue new blank checks to the largest fossil fuel companies, with no transition conditions out of oil and gas. Rather than making concrete commitments to meet basic scientific demands, BNP Paribas communicates and contributes to feed the fabric of doubt on the scientific consensus.”
Alexandre Poidatz, advocacy manager at Oxfam Francepress release from Oxfam France, Friends of the Earth and Notre Affaire à Tous
In April 2021, BNP Paribas joined the Net Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA), a program initiated by the UN as part of COP26 in Glasgow to encourage banks to take part in phasing out fossil fuels. Contacted by the NOWU media in October, the bank once again defended its ambitions in this area, presenting itself “Today” as “one of the world’s major banks with the most ambitious oil funding reduction targets.” On its website, BNP Paribas undertakes to “reduce by 25% (compared to 2020) its exposure to oil production by 2025”.
But for the associations, these announcements, as well as the official response made to the NGO lawyers, “are still largely insufficient and do not respond in any way to the requests made in the formal notice”. “The bank does not require its clients to have a physical exit plan and no new oil and gas projects, when it committed in 2020 to do so for the coal sector. It even emphasizes in its announcements its intention to bet on new infrastructure and gas plants”still points to the press release.