The success

In March 2021, Barclays and Credit Suisse confirmed to BankTrack that they would steer clear of the EACOP. Then in April the “big three” French banks (BNP Paribas, Société Générale and Crédit Agricole) confirmed to a French newspaper that they would not finance the project, with one describing the project as “too hard to defend”. HSBC and Mizuho followed in September.

BankTrack's role

Since publishing a Dodgy Deal profile on the project in 2018, we have been advocating for banks not to join the expected US $3 billion project loan this pipeline needs to proceed. In 2021 we became a founder member of the international #StopEACOP campaign coalition, and helped secure funding for a part-time coordinator for the coalition, hosted by 350 Africa. In March 2021 we coordinated an open letter targeting 25 banks and calling on them not to finance the project, which secured the support of 263 civil society organisations, including 122 based in Africa. The letter was delivered to the 25 banks on 1st March, with the #StopEACOP coalition website launched the same day. Together with allies we ensured that Standard Bank faced a barrage of questions on EACOP and climate at its AGM in May, and contributed to a video which was promoted to Standard Bank employees and other South African bank staff on LinkedIn. Questions on EACOP were put by BankTrack and local partners to several other banks at their AGMs, including JPMorgan, HSBC and the largest Japanese banks. We also produced a Risk Update for banks in August 2021.