Oxfam, Friends of the Earth and Our Common Business accuse the French banking giant of being “the first European financier and 5th in the world for the development of fossil fuels”.
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A first step before possible unprecedented legal action to force BNP Paribas to increase its climate commitments. Three NGOs gave formal notice, on Wednesday 26 October, the French banking giant to stop financing new oil and gas projects.
@OxfamFrance, @friendsoftheearth and @OurAffair launch the#BNP Case and put the most polluting bank in formal notice! BNP Paribas must comply with the law and stop supporting new fossil fuel projects.
Support us https://t.co/aYqduQ7wSq pic.twitter.com/8W5gK75SDe
— The BNP Affair (@AffaireBNP) October 26, 2022
Oxfam, Friends of the Earth and Notre Affaire à Tous accuse BNP Paribas of being “the first European financier and 5th in the world for the development of fossil fuels, with 55 billion dollars in financing granted between 2016 and 2021” to new mining projects. For these three NGOs, the bank “has his finger on the detonator of these climate bombs” and its financing constitute a non-respect, punishable, of its “duty of care”.
Since 2017, the French law on “the duty of vigilance” requires large companies to take effective measures to prevent human rights and environmental abuses throughout their chain of activity. The three NGOs plan to sue a bank for the first time on this basis.
According to the law, companies given formal notice have a period of three months to comply and possibly dialogue with NGOs, before the latter can launch a possible summons before the Paris court.
For NGOs, BNP Paribas’ support for “expanding” the use of hydrocarbons is in total contradiction with the objectives of reducing carbon emissions necessary to respect the Paris agreement of 2015 and limit global warming.