After a year of campaigning by Friends of the Earth France, Société Générale confirmed the implementation of the new coal power policy it adopted in October 2016, which states that the bank will not finance any more any new coal plant around the world. The policy took effect on January 1, 2017, so Société Générale had to drop out of the financing of the Tanjun Jati B 2 coal power expansion project in Java, Indonesia, which did not reach financial close before the bank's internal deadline. Read more

Mired in a major international corruption scandal, the proposed Punta Catalina coal plant in the Dominican Republic became untouchable for Deutsche Bank, ING, Santander, Société Générale and Unicredit in 2017. As the gravity of the situation surrounding the project’s construction company Odebrecht intensified, the five bank consortium suspended its financing of the project, triggering a panicked turn to the international bond markets by the Dominican government in order to find some way of keeping the project afloat. BankTrack maintained regular contact with the lead consortium banks throughout the year, in tandem with our Dominican partner group National Committee to Combat Climate Change (CNLCC). We brought CNLCC’s Enrique de León to the AGMs of Deutsche Bank and Société Générale where he received public assurances from senior bank executives that they would be taking a ‘zero tolerance’ approach to corruption at Punta Catalina.  

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 April 2014 the Russian authorities announced that the planned Baltic nuclear power plant project in the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, a highly controversial project opposed by the local population, has been abandoned. Friends of the Earth France, whose campaign against Société Générale's financial support for this project contributed to its suspension, welcomed the news, but remain vigilant about the involvement of French banks in the nuclear sector. Read more.

After more than a year of campaigning by Les Amis de la Terre (FoE France), Bizi! and Attac France, Société Générale announced on December 5th, 2014 that it had "suspended" its advisory mandate with GVK Hancock on the Alpha Coal project, a giant coal mine + railway + port project in Australia. The official announcement came one day before the third national day of action targeting Société Générale across France. Read more.