Sarah Tak is the coordinator of Climate Case. Elias Van Marcke is a lawyer at the environmental association Dryade.
BNP Paribas is once again in the eye of the storm, as the bank continues to finance the fossil fuel industry. The Belgian government is one of the reference shareholders of the French bank, but lets it be.
From a recent report by the French NGO Reclaim Finance it appears that BNP Paribas plays a crucial role in financing significant new fossil fuel projects. In 2021, BNP Paribas provided a syndicated loan of no less than 10 billion dollars (about 9.5 billion euros) to Saudi Aramco, the largest oil company in the world. Last year, BNP Paribas also acted as one of the lenders for a loan of 14 billion dollars (about 13.2 billion euros) to that same Aramco.
It was therefore little surprise that BNP Paribas was summoned two weeks ago – as the first commercial bank ever – in a climate case. A group of French NGOs demands that BNP Paribas stop financing new fossil fuel projects.
In the same vein, six hundred scientists called on the board of directors of BNP Paribas to stop all forms of financing for oil and gas extraction. These scientists, including several co-authors of the IPCC reports, point out in their open letter in the French magazineL’Obs that the financing strategy of BNP Paribas directly contradicts the Paris Agreement.
The scientists received support from an unexpected source: Zakia Khattabi, federal minister for Climate on behalf of Ecolo, shared the open letter from the scientists on Twitter. That response raised many eyebrows.
The Belgian government has been a shareholder of BNP Paribas through its investment vehicle FPIM since the financial crisis of 2008 and was even the largest shareholder until last week. Despite its significant stake and its directors, the Belgian government has never been able or willing to exert real influence on the bank's policy.
The state treasury is annually topped up with an attractive dividend, but the Belgian government must passively watch as BNP Paribas continues to provide financing that undermines its own climate ambitions and directly contradicts the scientific consensus on climate change.
Moreover, the Belgian government already has a poor reputation in this area. In the 'Climate Case', for which the appeal is still pending, the Belgian governments were collectively condemned in 2021 for their negligent climate policy. This climate policy was so inadequate that it violates the legal duty of care and human rights.
Well, it is high time that Minister Vincent Van Peteghem (cd&v), responsible for FPIM, intervenes. As long as the Belgian government is a shareholder of BNP Paribas, the least the citizen can expect is that the government finally acts as an active and critical shareholder.
For example, by questioning the financing of the fossil fuel industry by BNP Paribas both internally and publicly, by taking a stance on this French lawsuit, or – why not – by proposing a climate scientist as a board member?