New oil and gas policy: Crédit Agricole still refuses to look science in the face

Crédit Agricole announces in the introduction the color

What does the bank do first and foremost, point 1? It justifies that new investments in hydrocarbons will take place in the coming years. Crédit Agricole persists in dismissing the main conclusions and repeated calls from the scientific community as well as the International Energy Agency: the expansion of fossil fuels – including LNG (liquefied natural gas) – is totally incompatible with the objectives of the Paris Agreement and achieving carbon neutrality by 2050.

Crédit Agricole provides exceptions for key financial activities

The Crédit Agricole group is also its asset management subsidiary Amundi, the first in Europe and with a colossal climate impact. However, the bank explains to us that the concrete measures of this oil and gas policy do not concern the management of assets on behalf of third parties.

Crédit Agricole leaves the door open to direct financing of destructive oil and gas projects

The bank says it excludes financing of “infrastructure projects strictly dedicated to new extraction projects”. This suggests that it will not hesitate to do so for a myriad of new projects that are not specifically linked to a new well. This is particularly the case in the United States, where the shale gas boom is fueling an LNG boom – which we fear will not weaken with the return of Trump.

Is Crédit Agricole marking the end of bond issues from hydrocarbon producers?

Crédit Agricole undertakes to exclude “advisory mandates for bond issues of companies involved in the exploration and production of fossil hydrocarbons”. These terms are ambiguous, although probably carefully chosen. By speaking only of “advisory mandates”, the bank could choose to exclude only a fraction of the services it offers to these producers in the issuance of their bonds. It must therefore clarify the scope of this measure. Furthermore, Crédit Agricole specifies that this exclusion does not concern green bonds or “sustainability-linked bonds”, the latter being widely criticized for their greenwashing. Finally, lending activities are in any case not covered by this measure, although they represent a majority of the bank's financial support for the fossil fuel industry.

Crédit Agricole does not give up on the expansion of fossil fuels

This new policy, riddled with loopholes, is far from signaling the end of Crédit Agricole's support for public and private companies that develop oil and gas projects, despite the climate emergency and at the cost of human rights violations. However, it has a heavy and historic responsibility in climate change: between 2021 and 2023 alone, Crédit Agricole has granted $17 billion in financing for the expansion of fossil fuels 2.

Crédit Agricole still ignores Total's Mozambique LNG gas project

The bank is being singled out for its support of Total's gas activities in Mozambique, linked to serious environmental consequences and serious human rights violations – even before the Mozambique LNG project was built. An investigation published in Politico recently revealed a massacre of civilians, allegedly committed by Mozambican soldiers on the Total 3 site. Crédit Agricole, which must decide on the relaunch of this highly controversial project, has so far refused to distance yourself from it.