Bloomberg reports that BNP Paribas SA will cease funding and advising tobacco companies: "The French bank will halt transactions and investments related to the sector and “progressively disengage” from relationships with tobacco clients, Laurence Pessez, the bank’s global head of corporate social responsibility, said in an interview in Paris. The decision applies to all types of products and services, though the bank will honor all contractual commitments, she said." Read more.

In February, BankTrack coordinated and sent an open letter to the 11 banks that signed a Discussion Paper by the Thun Group, calling for the paper's withdrawal. The paper took as its starting point that banks do not contribute to human rights abuses through their finance, flying in the face of UN advice on banks’ human rights responsibilities. The concerns raised in the letter were quickly echoed by others, and following further discussions the paper was revised in December, partially addressing the concerns. 

On October 12, BNP Paribas committed to help accelerate the energy transition and drastically reduce its financing of so called unconventional fossil fuels: tar sands, shale gas, oil and gas exploration projects in the Arctic region, as well as all related infrastructure for transport and export. Read more.

In February ABN AMRO, ING, BayernLB and Nordea all announced they would step away from financing either the project or its backers. ABN AMRO committed to end its financing for Energy Transfer Equity (ETE) if the pipeline proceeds without consent from the Standing Rock Sioux or with further violence. Nordea excluded three companies behind the Dakota Access Pipeline from investment. BayernLB stated it will withdraw from financing DAPL at the earliest opportunity, and not provide further finance. In March, ING became the first bank to sell its portion of a project loan supporting the pipeline. This was followed by DNB and by BNP Paribas selling on their shares of the loan. The buyers are unknown.

BNP Paribas stated in May 2016 that after financing the coal company Drummond in 2010, it declined to provide further finance in 2012, and decided in 2014 not to provide financial services to the company until further notice, due to "ongoing ESG (including human rights) controversies". The announcement came in response to BankTrack's Human Rights Impact Briefing on allegations of Drummond's involvement in paramilitary violence in Colombia.

In May, Bank of America and Crédit Agricole became the first major banks to announce plans to stop financing coal mining. These announcements marked a hugely significant win and a breakthrough moment in the fight to end financing for the coal industry. The second half of 2015, in the run-up to the make-or-break UN climate change conference in Paris, then saw important coal finance restrictions being announced by institutions including Citi, Natixis, Goldman Sachs, Société Générale, BNP Paribas, ING and RBS. All these moves are captured here – significantly, a number of banks have chosen not just to get out of coal mining, but are also extending into ending their support for coal power. 

In April, BNP Paribas, Société Générale and Crédit Agricole all ruled out finance to coal mining projects in the Galilee Basin in Queenland, Australia. The planned new coal mine and port is expected to have devastating effects on the Great Barrier Reef, a World Heritage Site. Read more.

In June, the three largest French banks, BNP Paribas, Crédit Agricole and Société Génerale, have said they will not finance the Rampal coal power project, on the edge of the Sundarbans mangrove forest in Bangladesh. The move comes six months after two Norwegian pension funds withdrew from India's National Thermal Power Corporation, one of the companies involved in developing the plant. Read more.

In 2013, BNP Paribas pledged to cut financing for top producers of mountaintop removal coal. In spring 2014, JPMorgan Chase updated its environmental policy committing to aggressively reduce its financing relationships with mountaintop removal coal mining companies. And in April 2014, Royal Bank of Scotland followed suit, updating their environmental policies to prohibit financing to companies who are "significant producers of coal using mountaintop removal (MTR) mining in Appalachia."     

In March 2012 the Bulgarian government officially announced the cancellation of the Belene nuclear power project. BankTrack members had worked to stop the project as part of an international coalition since 2006, when Western potential investors and financiers were approached for the project. In 2010 BNP Paribas withdrew from the project after years of campaigning by Les Amis de la Terre and others. Other banks which came under pressure to stay out of the project included Deutsche Bank, UniCredit, Citi and HSBC.