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Asset managers urge European banks

to cease oil and gas financing

EU ASSET managers have urged European banks new targets in January to “accelerate the tran-
to stop directly financing new oil and gas field sition to a low-carbon economy,” including a
The call comes despite developments this year, to avoid jeopardising the pledge to cease financing of new oil and gas
soaring energy prices. push to net zero. exploration and production and reducing its
The plea was made on February 10 by exposure to gas.
ShareAction, which represents investors Credit Agricole, meanwhile, pointed to its
managing assets valued at over $1.5 trillion. existing commitment to stop financing new oil
ShareAction said it had made the demand production projects, and its plan to achieve car-
in letters sent to the heads of Barclays, BNP bon neutrality by 2050.
Paribas, Credit Agricole, Deutsche Bank, Societe Generale declined to comment, but
and Societe Generale. Its signatories include said it would review the letter once its executives
Aegon Asset Management, La Francaise Asset had obtained a copy. The French bank is aiming
Management, and the UK’s Local Government to reduce its exposure to oil and gas production
Pension Scheme. by the middle of the decade. Deutsche Bank said
According to ShareAction, the banks it had it had “significantly reduced” its involvement in
reached out to along with the UK’s HSBC were emissions-intensive sectors over the past seven
Europe’s largest financiers of top oil and gas years, and had set targets to cut financed emis-
firms expanding output between 2016 and 2021. sions by 2030 and by 2050.
HSBC was left out as it announced it would “We are focused on supporting our custom-
stop directly financing new oil and gas fields in ers in their transformation towards becoming
December. carbon neutral,” it said.
“Investors are putting these banks on notice A number of European banks have already
that they will face ever-increasing pressure if committed to ending financing of hydrocarbon
they don’t act soon to reverse their financing of development, going significantly further than
new oil and gas,” ShareAction’s Jeonne Martin. most of their peers in Asia and the Americas.
A representative for Barclays said the bank While environmental groups argue that the
believed it could best contribute by working with financing of oil and gas must be further cur-
customers and clients as they aspire towards a tailed, the industry itself has cited the trend as
low-carbon economy. one of the causes of soaring high global energy
“This includes many oil and gas companies prices.
that are actively engaged and critical to the tran- In particular, resource-rich African nations
sition,” the spokesperson said. Barclays is work- have urged Western financiers to do more to
ing to reduce its financed emissions from energy, support oil and gas developments, arguing that
they added. this can ease the global energy crisis and reduce
BNP Paribas noted that it had announced the continent’s poverty. ™

P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 07 16•February•2023