2023-12-14 09:53:08
The Crédit Agricole bank committed on Thursday December 14 to no longer finance new fossil fuel extraction projects and to reduce the CO emitted by projects financed by oil and gas by 75% by 2030, the day after the agreement reached by COP28 in Dubai.
” We decide (…) to cease all financing of new fossil fuel extraction projects and to adopt a selective approach in supporting energy companies involved in this transition”indicated Philippe Brassac, the general director of the banking group, one of the main ones in France and Europe, in a press release announcing the update of the climate policy.
This will have “as a result of reducing greenhouse gas emissions from this sector twice as fast as the Net Zero by 2050 scenario published by the International Energy Agency”, he indicated. In detail, the group is committed to “decrease in financed emissions of 75% in the oil and gas sector by 2030 (vs 2020) compared to – 30% announced in 2022”it is specified in its new climate policy.
7th rank of banks indirectly supporting oil extraction
Last December, Crédit Agricole had already announced the end of financing for new oil extraction projects and specified some of its climate objectives.
In an investigation by Monde on the “carbon bombs”oil, gas and coal extraction sites that emit super CO, Crédit Agricole was ranked seventh among banks providing significant indirect support for its projects. “The banking market is such that banks very rarely finance fossil extraction projects directly. They prefer to grant loans to extractive companies”the daily then indicated.
Crédit Agricole also committed on Thursday to tripling the “annual financing in France” on “renewable energies between 2020 and 2030”. A commitment in line with the Dubai agreement signed the day before, which calls for “triple the capacity of renewable energies globally” by 2030. The bank also unveiled climate objectives for five new sectors: maritime transport, aviation, steel, residential real estate and agriculture.
Often criticized by NGOs for their support of fossil fuels, banks regularly update their policies limiting their impact on global warming. Several banks took advantage of COP28 to do so: BNP Paribas announced on November 23 that it would no longer finance metallurgical coal, intended mainly for the steel industry, and Société Générale clarified a few days earlier commitments made in September, adding a section on the decarbonization of the commercial real estate sector.
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