Paris, France – The French central bank Banque de France has announced that it will phase out coal investments from its €22 billion portfolio by 2024, while significantly reducing its investment in oil and gas companies. However, the exclusionary criteria only applies to direct investments, not the hundreds of billions in assets managed by the bank through its monetary policy.
Clémence Dubois, campaigner at 350.org said:
“The announcement by Banque de France puts climate criminals like Total on notice and increases pressure on the Bank of England (1) and the European Central Bank (2) to move beyond words and take action to tackle the climate crisis. Central banks have a responsibility to shut off the flow of finance to fossil fuel projects around the world, projects that are destroying local communities and driving climate breakdown (4). This is an important signal but it is becoming increasingly difficult to welcome announcements that do not go far enough or fast enough. This decision is not strong enough because it doesn’t apply to the vast bulk of assets managed by the bank. As a consequence, billions of euros are still going to be available to the world’s most dangerous polluters. The Banque de France has signalled that it cares about the climate crisis, now it needs to use its influence within the European Central Bank to stop fossil finance.”
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Note to editor
- The Bank of England has committed to undertake a climate stress test in June
- The European Central Bank is considering adopting climate criteria as part of its monetary policy review this year
- Reclaim Finance statement on Banque De France announcement
- Examples: Total in Mozambique, Total in East Africa
Contacts
Clémence Dubois (FR, EN) – [email protected] +33642713175
Mark Raven (EN) – [email protected] +447841474125