Banks| Dodgy Deals| Map| Campaigns
About us| Blog| Publications| Successes| Contact us| Donate
About BankTrack
Visit us
Organisation
Our team
Our board
Guiding principles
Team up with us
Join our Active Allies list
Our annual reports
Funding and finances
History
BankTrack in the media
Our privacy policy
Donate
2020-12-22 00:00:00
Blog: In 2020, the Equator Principles struggle to remain relevant
2020-12-14 00:00:00
The battle to stop Line 3 is heating up on the ground and across the US
2020-12-14 00:00:00
Corporate accountability and the just transition: Frameworks for holding corporations accountable for climate change
2020-12-12 00:00:00
Five years since the Paris Agreement, are banks' 2050 pledges enough to reign in fossil fuel finance?
2020-09-24 12:53:20
Oscislowo open-pit coal mine cancelled
2020-09-08 13:07:41
Strengthened OECD guidance on responsible banking
2020-02-25 10:35:27
JPMorgan Chase Coal and Arctic Policy a step forward but fails to match its climate responsibility as the world’s #1 Fossil Bank
2020-02-18 17:27:23
Civil society groups welcome Royal Bank of Scotland preparing to exit fossil fuels
Connect
2020-11-30 00:00:00
Soft Commitments, Hard Lessons: an analysis of the Soft Commodities Compact
2020-11-24 00:00:00
"Trust Us, We're Equator Banks": Part II
2020-11-18 00:00:00
Crude Risk: Risks to banks and investors from the East African Crude Oil Pipeline
2020-09-16 00:00:00
Principles for Paris-Aligned Financial Institutions: Climate Impact, Fossil Fuels and Deforestation
2020-08-17 00:00:00
"Trust Us, We're Equator Banks": Part I
2020-03-18 00:00:00
Banking on Climate Change - Fossil Fuel Finance Report 2020
See all publications
Browse
Home
Banks
Dodgy Deals
Map
Campaigns
About
About BankTrack
Donate
Contact BankTrack
Publications
Victories
Follow Us
News
BankTrack blog
Facebook page
Twitter channel
Home › News
New guidance notes on energy by ORSE: Falling short of the mark!
Start

By: Friends of the Earth France
2013-02-06
Paris

Contact:

 

Caroline Prak, Friends of the Earth France

            (+33) 1 48 51 32 22       /             (+33) 6 86 41 53 43      

 


Share this page:

Photo: -

ORSE, the Study Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility, which gathers major players of the financing of the French economy and abroad, published yesterday its new guidance notes on the energy sector aimed to inspire sector policies for French banks and insurers (1). For Friends of the Earth France, while these guidance notes are a first step, they are largely insufficient and far from FoE France's demands. The necessary energy transition will not happen if banks continue to finance new coal fired power plants, unconventional fossil fuels projects, huge dams or nuclear power plants unabated, the environmental and social impacts of which become ever more disastrous. These activities need to be excluded from financing, and French financial players' "financed emissions" need to decrease significantly, as fast as possible.

The adoption of sector policies in the energy sector has been a priority demand of FoE France since the publication of the report "French Banks, Fossil Banks?" in 2007 (2). Major French banks, notably BNP Paribas, Société Générale and Crédit Agricole, were at first far behind other international banks, but have progressively adopted energy sector policies in the past few years. The adoption of these guidance notes in the energy sector by ORSE, aimed to inspire such policies in other banks as well as insurers and asset managers in France, is then a first step in the right direction.
The ORSE guidelines, however, very much resemble the latest sector policies adopted by French banks, and are, like the sector policies, wholly insufficient. Viviana Varin, campaigner on finance sector responsibility for FoE France, explains where the problem lies: "The wording of these guidance notes is deceiving. The presentation of the issues is highly biased, the vocabulary often vague, and the numerous loopholes leave much room for interpretation, making these notes a real Swiss cheese. Moreover, the selection or exclusion criteria do not live up to the stated ambition of "reflecting current best practices in the market" since many of those best practices are actually missing in the guidance notes. The improvements mentioned are unfortunately timid, such as the reference to the criteria of the World Commission on Dams for the hydroelectric sector, mentioned only as "recommendation" and not an obligation for new projects in the South".
But the main issue lies in the continued distaste of French financial institutions for the complete exclusion of dodgy activities. Yann Louvel, Climate and Energy Campaign Coordinator for the BankTrack network, concludes: "Rather than excluding the sectors and activities that have the most negative impacts on the climate, the environmental or living conditions of local communities, such as coal fired power plants, tar sands projects, oil projects in the Arctic or nuclear power plants, these guidance notes try to come up with acceptable criteria which are unfortunately totally insufficient. For BankTrack, such unconventional fossil fuels projects or nuclear projects cannot be "responsible" by nature. French banks have not drawn the lessons from the latest catastrophes in this sector, starting with the Fukushima disaster. They must adopt full exclusion of these false solutions to the climate and environmental crises, and reduce their financed emissions as fast as possible not to be involved any more in many dodgy deals around the world."
 
 
(1) Those policies are available only in French on this page.
(2) An executive summary in English of the report "French banks, fossil banks?" published in 2007 is available on this page.

 

Browse
Home
Banks
Dodgy Deals
Map
Campaigns
About
About BankTrack
Donate
Contact BankTrack
Publications
Victories
Follow Us
News
BankTrack blog
Facebook page
Twitter channel
Vismarkt 15
6511 VJ Nijmegen
The Netherlands

Tel: +31 24 324 9220
Contact@banktrack.org
©2016 BankTrack                Webdesign by BankTrack and EASYmind
BankTrack is a registered charity in the Netherlands (ANBI) - RSIN 813874658
Find our privacy policy here

Stay up to date

Sign up now for all BankTrack's news


Make a comment

Your comment will be reviewed, before being posted