(25 January 2023 – Europe) French bank BNP Paribas on Tuesday pledged to slash the money it has outstanding with the oil extraction and production industries to less than one billion euros ($1.1 billion) by 2030, an 80 percent decline from its current balance of five billion euros.
Reuters reported the lender said it stopped financing oil projects back in 2016, but Tuesday's commitment will accelerate the pace at which it reduces outstanding financing for oil extraction and production as part of its efforts to curb carbon emission and meet climate goals.
It also hiked its target for outstanding financing for the production of “low-carbon, primarily renewable, energies” to 40 billion euros by 2030, up from an earlier goal of 30 billion euros by 2025.
The Bank will also cut outstanding financing for gas extraction and production by more than 30 percent by 2030, BNP Paribas said in a press release.
Banks have been announcing targets to shift towards lower-carbon sectors and away from fossil fuels, although with many of their goals out to 2030 it can be hard to assess progress.
In a statement on Friday, the bank said it “supports energy companies that are strongly committed to the transition of their models … to reorient financing toward low-carbon energy sources.”