Milestone: the world’s first climate litigation against a bank is starting today

Key messages

An unprecedented legal action

  • Les Amis de la Terre France / Friends of the Earth France, Notre Affaire à Tous and Oxfam France are launching an unprecedented legal action against the most polluting bank in France: BNP Paribas
  • This is the first time in the world that a bank has been sued for its contribution to climate change
  • This legal action is based on the law on the duty of vigilance, a pioneering French law against the impunity of multinational corporations
  • Three months ago, Friends of the Earth France, Notre Affaire à Tous and Oxfam France sent BNP Paribas a formal notice to stop supporting new fossil fuel projects in order to comply with the law on duty of vigilance.
  • The NGOs’ demand is to stop all financial support for companies developing new fossil fuel projects and without an exit plan from oil and gas
  • There is a consensus on the need to stop developing fossil fuels: climate scientists, the IPCC, UN and even the IEA agree on this imperative 
  • So far, BNP Paribas has not provided a sufficient response to suggest that the bank is moving towards fulfilling its duty of vigilance and ending its support for fossil fuel expansion.

 

A climate-killing bank

  • BNP Paribas has a larger carbon footprint than French territorial emissions
  • BNP Paribas is the leading European financier and 5th worldwide of fossil fuel expansion, between 2016 and 2021
  • BNP Paribas is the world’s leading financier of the 8 oil and gas majors, including TotalEnergies, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell, BP, ENI, Repsol and Equinor, between 2016 and 2021
  • 1st financier of the British oil and gas giant BP in the world
  • 1st financier of the English oil and gas giant Shell in the world
  • 1st financier of the Italian oil and gas giant ENI in the world
  • 2d financier of the French oil and gas giant Total in the world

Why BNP Paribas 

Since the Paris Agreement, BNP Paribas’ financing of fossil fuels continues

  • BNP Paribas has a larger carbon footprint than French territorial emissions
  • BNP Paribas is the leading European financier and 5th worldwide of fossil fuel development between 2016 and 2021
  • BNP Paribas is the world’s leading financier of the 8 oil and gas majors, including TotalEnergies, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell, BP, ENI, Repsol and Equinor, between 2016 and 2021

 

Generalist/legal

  • It’s a milestone: the world’s first climate litigation against a bank is starting today
  • BNP Paribas will have to answer in court for its responsibility in the climate crisis.
  • This summons has been issued after BNP Paribas, which has been on notice since October 2022, failed to take the most urgent measure to comply with science: stopping its financial support for the expansion of fossil fuels.
  • Given the inadequacy of the measures taken by BNP and the greenwashing deployed by the bank – in the media, among its employees and clients – in response to the formal notice, the associations firmly reiterate, via this summons, that they are determined to obtain a binding decision from the judge.

‘Ignoring scientific truths’: BNP Paribas faces legal action over climate strategy

First climate-related legal action

'Ignoring scientific truths': BNP Paribas faces legal action over climate strategy

Case brought by NGOs against investor thought to be first climate-related legal action to target a commercial bank.

BNP Paribas has become the latest firm to be taken to court over its climate credentials, with a raft of NGOs this morning announcing they are suing the French banking giant over its investments in fossil fuels and contribution to climate change.

The action, brought by Friends of the Earth France, Notre Affaire à Tous, and Oxfam France, is believed to be the world’s first climate lawsuit against a commercial bank.

The campaigning organisations claim that BNP Paribas – Europe’s biggest bank and a major global investor in fossil fuels – has failed to comply with France’s duty of vigilance law, which demands large companies take appropriate measures to protect human rights and the environment across their value chains.

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The case will argue that as Europe’s number one investor in oil and gas expansion, BNP Paribas’s financial strategy directly flouts warnings from the scientific community that new oil, gas and coal fields will push the 1.5C limit set out in the Paris Agreement out of reach.

Lorette Philippot, a campaigner at Friends of the Earth France, said the bank was “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 project,” she added.

Last month, BNP Paribas announced it would reduce its financing of oil and gas assets by 80 per cent and 30 per cent, respectively, by 2030, arguing it was already in the midst of a “major pivot” away from fossil fuels and towards clean energy.

But campaigners warned the bank’s commitments did not go far enough to bring its financing in line with climate goals, pointing out that the bank still did not require eight of its major oil and gas clients to immediately stop developing new oil and gas projects, in line with scientific advice.

Responding to the claim, BNP Paribas spokesperson said it was regrettable that the NGOs had “chosen to engage in litigation rather than dialogue”.

“BNP Paribas, like other major international banks, is a long-standing financier of energy production, the spokeperson added. “Approximately 10 years ago, 95 per cent of our outstanding financing for energy production financed fossil energy projects.

“Today, already more than half of our financing for energy production is oriented towards low carbon energies. By 2030, BNP Paribas will have transitioned its financing activities to low carbon energy production by more than 80 per cent, well ahead of the transition of the rest of the economy.”

As a member of the Net Zero Banking Alliance, BNP Paribas has committed itself to “funding a car­bon-neutral world by 2050, which means that the tem­perature increase should not exceed 1.5C compared to the pre-industrial era”.

The lawsuit, filed at the Paris Judicial Court, has been launched by the campaigners after the Bank failed to meet a string of demands they set out in a letter in October 2022.

It is part of a wave of climate litigation being brought against companies, governments, and regulators around the world.

The suit against BNP Paribas comes just a week after Shell’s directors were hit with a legal action over the company’s climate strategy, and the UK financial regulator was targeted with a new legal challenge over its approval of an oil and gas company’s prospectus – clearing it for a public listing – that claimants believe did not adequately incorporate climate risk disclosures.

Justine Ripoll, campaigner at Notre Affaire à Tous, said the action against a commercial bank would set a precedent that others could follow.

“The financial sector has a huge responsibility in our collective ability to comply with the Paris Agreement,” she said. “This first climate litigation against a commercial bank is undoubtedly the first of many around the world.”

The case comes just a day after HSBC revealed it had added greenwashing to its risk register, with financial documents published this week describing it as “an important emerging risk that is likely to increase over time as we look to develop capabilities and products to achieve our net zero commitments”.

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