Climate campaigners sue BNP Paribas over fossil fuel finance
French campaigners are suing one of Europe’s largest financial institutions for financing fossil fuels in the first climate-related lawsuit against a commercial bank.
Oxfam France, Friends of the Earth France and Notre Affaire à Tous accuse BNP Paribas of supporting companies that aggressively develop new oil and gas fields and infrastructure, despite repeated calls by scientists to stop investment in fossil fuels.
Their lawsuit was filed in a Paris court on Thursday under France’s corporate duty of vigilance law, which requires all large businesses headquartered in France and international corporations with a significant presence there to set out clear measures to prevent human rights violations and environmental damage.
BNP Paribas is the EU’s largest funder of fossil fuel expansion. Campaigners are particularly concerned about the huge carbon majors it has as clients, including Total, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell, BP, ENI, Repsol and Equinor. These companies are involved in more than 200 new fossil fuel projects scheduled for approval by 2025, which would collectively produce about 8.6bn tonnes of carbon dioxide.
The bank began planning an exit from coal in 2019 and now says its remaining thermal coal exposure is “only residual”. In 2021, it joined the UN’s Net Zero Banking Alliance.
But it has been slower to act on oil and gas.
Lorette Philippot, the campaigner at Friends of the Earth France, accused BNP Paribas of “ignoring scientific truths”.
“The urgent warning professed by the scientific community and the International Energy Agency has recently been reiterated through repeated statements from the United Nations: a bank cannot claim to be committed to net zero while supporting new oil and gas projects.”
BNP Paribas had
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