France’s BNP Paribas announced that it will reduce its fossil fuel lending hours after British actors demanded the same.
According to the top French bank, it will reduce its fossil fuel loan portfolio to below EUR1bn by 2030. This is an 80% decrease from current levels.
BNP stated that it had stopped lending to new projects in 2016, but that this plan will accelerate its withdrawal of projects in oil extraction, production and other areas.
According to the bank, it will increase its lending to “low-carbon, primarily sustainable, energies” to EUR40bn by 2030, as opposed to its previous goal of EUR30bn.
BNP Paribas stated in a statement that gas project financing will be reduced by more than 30% by 2030.
Banks are being pressured to repay oil and gas industry loans.
Lobby group Make My Money Matter sent today an open letter to the top five UK banks, asking them to end financing fossil fuel investments.
Celebrities launch environmental campaigns targeting Lloyds Banking Group and other UK bank branches
Actors Stephen Fry, Emma Thompson and Mark Rylance were among the signatories, as was Richard Curtis, director Richard Curtis, and other celebrities such as Christiana Figueres and Caroline Lucas, Bill McKibben, Brian Eno and Bill McKibben.
It was unclear whether BNP Paribas had been reached out to the UK banks as well as BNP Paribas.