Words by Smiley Team
One day after the International Energy Agency reaffirmed the need to end fossil fuel expansion, French commercial bank the Banque Postale released a plan to fully divest from oil and gas by 2030 - a move it claims will be the world’s first for the mainstream financial sector.
In the meantime, this subsidiary of the French postal office will suspend all the financial services it has previously offered to companies involved in fossil fuel expansion. This includes exploration for oil and gas sources as well as new infrastructure and extraction projects.
Campaign group Reclaim Finance celebrated the news, with one campaigner, Alix Mazounie, saying: "This announcement sets a precedent in the fight to end fossil fuel financing. For the first time, a bank is committing to ending support to the oil and gas industry and its climate-threatening expansion plans.”
The announcement comes ahead of the 26th UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) which takes place this November.
“With COP26 just days away, a strong signal has been sent to financial institutions in Paris and beyond,” added Alix. “This new policy sets a precedent which must be followed by every investor, insurer and bank which claims to be serious in its climate commitments, whether to net-zero or to the Paris Agreement.”
Friends of the Earth and Oxfam also welcomed the decision and hope it will inspire other institutions to take similar action, using the Banque Postale’s strategy as an easily replicable model.
“If every bank simply copied and pasted La Banque Postale’s policy, we’d have taken a big step towards a climate-safe world,” explained Alexandre Poidatz from Oxfam France.
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Since 2015, when 196 parties signed the Paris Agreement, committing to keeping global warming well below 2℃, the world’s 60 biggest banks have proceeded to invest $3.8 trillion in fossil fuels.
As Rainforest Action Network has stated: “Runaway funding for fossil fuel extraction and infrastructure fuels climate chaos and threatens the lives and livelihoods of millions.”
Support Reclaim Finance in their campaign to transform the financial sector for the better here.
Find more information at reclaimfinance.org.
