Mubasher: BNP Paribas on Wednesday said it will no longer work with oil and gas companies that operate mainly in the shale or oil sands business, Reuters reported.
France’s largest listed bank revealed that it was moving towards supporting renewable energy projects.
"We're a long-standing partner to the energy sector and we're determined to support the transition to a more sustainable world," BNP Paribas CEO Jean-Laurent Bonnafe said in a statement.
BNP Paribas “has already stopped financing coal mines and coal-fired power plants, and no longer supports coal companies that are not planning to diversify their energy sources,” according to Reuters.
The Paris-based lender said at an earlier time that it was planning to spend up to EUR 15 billion ($17.72 billion) on financing renewable energy projects by 2020 in addition to investing around EUR 100 million ($118.18 million) in energy storage and efficiency-specialised startups.
Moving along the same line, Societe Generale, which is BNP Paribas’ smaller rival in France, said in October last year that it was planning to stop financing coal-powered electricity plants starting 2017, with plans to boost support and financing of renewable energy projects.
BNP is the eighth largest bank in the world by assets.
