PARIS, Feb 23 (Reuters) – Three local weather activist teams on Thursday took authorized motion in a Paris court docket in opposition to BNP Paribas (BNPP.PA), alleging the financial institution’s loans to massive oil and fuel firms breach a legally binding obligation in France to make sure its actions don’t hurt the atmosphere.
Local weather campaigners are more and more utilizing lawsuits to push massive firms to hurry up efforts to make the shift to a low-carbon financial system. In 2021, Shell was ordered by a Dutch court docket to deepen its deliberate greenhouse fuel emission cuts in a lawsuit filed by local weather activists.
French firms have change into a selected focus due to a 2017 legislation that requires them to draft environmental harm vigilance plans. A ruling in a case by environmental teams in opposition to TotalEnergies (TTEF.PA), a consumer of BNP Paribas, is predicted on Tuesday.
In France, no court docket has but compelled an organization to alter its methods on the idea of the 2017 legislation.
The three teams – Oxfam, Associates of the Earth and Notre Affaire à Tous – stated the lawsuit in opposition to BNP Paribas is geared toward making the French financial institution cease and exit the financing of fossil fuels, in what they stated was a world first in opposition to a business financial institution.
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Alexandre Poidatz, advocacy officer at Oxfam France, stated the financial institution “continues to write down new clean cheques to the most important fossil gas firms with out setting any situations for an oil-free, gas-free ecological transition.”
BNP Paribas stated in a press release to Reuters it regretted the advocacy teams’ alternative of litigation over dialogue and that it couldn’t cease all fossil-fuel financing straight away.
“We’re satisfied that the ecological transition is the one viable path for the way forward for our economies,” the financial institution stated.
“We’re centered on our fossil-fuel exit path, accelerating financing for renewable energies and supporting our clients, with out whom the transition can’t be made.”
FOSSIL FUELS
The three NGOs stated their authorized strategy in opposition to BNP Paribas, the euro zone’s largest financial institution, was modeled on the case within the Netherlands wherein Shell (SHEL.L) was ordered by a Dutch court docket to deepen deliberate cuts in greenhouse fuel emissions. Shell filed an attraction in opposition to the ruling final 12 months.
Oxfam, Associates of the Earth and Notre Affaire à Tous stated BNP Paribas was concerned in funding eight European and North American oil and fuel firms, that are concerned in additional than 200 new fossil gas tasks around the globe.
The teams declare that whereas BNP Paribas doesn’t immediately finance these tasks, its basic extension of credit score permits it to make climate-friendly claims, equivalent to becoming a member of the Internet Zero Banking Alliance, whereas persevering with to help doubtlessly damaging tasks through its banking purchasers.
The three teams cited the most recent version of the “Banking on Local weather Chaos” report from RainforestAction Community, which stated that BNP Paribas ranks eighth among the many worldwide banks which have contributed essentially the most to grease and fuel manufacturing, with $142 billion price of financing in fossil fuels between 2016 and 2021.
BNP Paribas’ excellent loans for fossil fuels amounted to 23.7 billion euros at finish of Sept. 2022, the financial institution stated in a press release final month.
The financial institution additionally stated it had stopped oil mission financing in 2016. “A dedication has been made to cut back excellent financing for oil extraction and manufacturing by 25% by 2025,” the financial institution stated.
In TotalEnergies’ case, subsequent Tuesday’s ruling will deal with a lawsuit by NGOs which alleges that the French vitality firm misled customers about its efforts to battle local weather change.
The authorized declare considerations the corporate’s “reinvention” advertising marketing campaign. Claimants say the marketing campaign broke European client legislation by suggesting TotalEnergies can attain net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 while nonetheless producing extra fossil fuels.
Different lawsuits have focused Air France-KLM’s Dutch division and even the French state.
Reporting by Mathieu Rosemain and America Hernandez; Extra reporting by Simon Jessop in London
Modifying by Matthew Lewis, Ingrid Melander and Jane Merriman
Our Requirements: The Thomson Reuters Belief Ideas.
