The group also claims not to have directly financed new oil projects since 2016.
The BNP Paribas bank announced in a press release on Tuesday that it wanted to divide its financing for the oil extraction and production sector by five, by reducing to “less than one billion euros» the amount of its outstanding loans.
This is a strong acceleration for the bank, which had so far communicated on a 25% reduction by 2025, even if refining and gas are not affected by this promise. However, its support for companies continuing to develop new fields is partly counted as exploration and production.
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The bank, which prides itself on having 55% energybas carbone(renewable energies, nuclear and biofuel) in its energy financing portfolio, compared to 45% of fossil energies (mainly oil and gas), foresees an 80-20 distribution in 2030. BNP Paribas thus aims to pass the outstanding amounts of its financing low-carbon energies,essentially renewable“, to 40 billion euros in 2030, against 24.8 last September.
Regarding gas, the banking group wishes to reduce its outstanding loans by 30%, valued at 5.3 billion euros in September 2022, by reserving financing “giving priority to new-generation low-emission thermal power plants as well as security of supply, gas terminals and gas transport fleet“, According to the press release.
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This announcement comes as the bank was put on notice at the end of October by three NGOs who accuse it of financing new oil and gas projects, in contradiction with its “duty of care“. BNP Paribas has until Thursday to send a response, after which the associations may decide to launch a summons.
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