What’s your take of BNP Paribas' Company Engagement in 2024?
Last year was marked by very significant progress. In its role as a promoter and accelerator of social and environmental transitions within the Group, the Company Engagement has continued to provide support for business lines and functions, and our collective achievements have now earned us a widely recognised leadership role as a responsible and committed bank.
In the energy transition, for instance, we have continued to move away from fossil fuels, in line with the Group’s commitment to achieve 90% of low-carbon energies in its energy production credit exposure by 2030. Thus, by the end of September 2024, this figure already reached to 76%, representing very concretely 36.8 billion euros in low-carbon credits, including more than 34 billion for renewable energies. Behind these figures, lie some remarkable deals made by the 250 bankers of the Low Carbon Transition Group. I could mention the financing agreement signed for Solarpack to build the largest photovoltaic solar farm in Peru, which will supply renewable energy to nearly 440,000 homes from the 2nd quarter of 2025, or our participation in the financing package for Ocean Winds’ Moray West offshore wind farm project. These operations contribute in making BNP Paribas a key player in financing the energy transition. And we’re not the only ones to say so, as evidenced by awards, extra-financial ratings and rankings such as Bloomberg’s, which places us as the leading provider of bonds and loans to finance green projects in 2024, with a total amount of $32.56 billion!
Regarding biodiversity, the Group has shown its determination by exceeding – by far and two years in advance! – the target we set in the GTS 2025 plan of €4 billion of financial products and services (loans, bonds, etc.) to help protect terrestrial and marine biodiversity: by the end of 2023, we had reached a cumulative total of €4.3 billion, and the figures for 2024 will confirm this trend.
Finally, we continued to support financial inclusion, for which Euromoney rewarded us as best bank. Last year we celebrated our 35 years of continuous support to microfinance institutions and signed partnerships in new countries such as South Africa and Kosovo.
What challenges await you in the months ahead?
We will continue to execute our roadmap with conviction and discipline which means helping our clients make their environmental transition and supporting sustainable and inclusive financial solutions. And this, despite the significant headwinds. Indeed, we have long made strong commitments regarding sustainable finance – as well as diversity and inclusion – which we have continued to confirm through very concrete measures, which are an integral part of our purpose and our strategic plan. The Group's mobilisation remains unchanged on these issues because the transitions must take place.
In addition, this year, certain issues will be in the spotlight of major international gatherings such as the COP30 in Brazil and the United Nations Ocean Conference in Nice. I’m mainly thinking about biodiversity, whose continued erosion across the planet means we need to step up our action.
We will also continue to promote just transition solutions. The ecological transition comes at a cost, and the most vulnerable people, who are often the most exposed to climate risks, sometimes find themselves prevented from taking the necessary actions to address them. Our company purpose, which is to serve our customers and the world in which we live in, obliges us to do so. We will therefore step up our efforts to make the ecological transition accessible to as many as possible, thanks to smart and innovative financial solutions, as we have done for example with 'ISLF+' (Inclusive Sustainability Linked Financing).
I could also mention the studies and work carried out with our clients on the circular economy, allowing them to simultaneously reduce their environmental footprint and the cost of their purchases, and on the adaptation of infrastructures to the physical risks posed by climate change. In short, Engagement is an integral part of the banking business and the opportunities opened up by the transition are countless.
What are the main focuses of your actions?
We have defined 5 main areas of action that I would sum up as follows: Being a center of expertise for the Group and all its businesses in terms of Social and Environmental Responsibility; Accelerate the development of impact investment solutions and support for inclusive finance; Pursuing and strengthening an ongoing dialogue with our stakeholders: - clients, partners from associations, NGOs, investors and extra-financial rating agencies, civil society...; Empowering those who act by promoting equal opportunities, backing research on biodiversity and the climate, supporting culture and making it accessible while responding to humanitarian crises and societal divisions in the world; And finally, on a more "internal" aspect of our organisation, continuing the sustainable transformation of our Company Engagement Department by deploying appropriate methods and tools, including our "Sustainability Academy", which since its launch in autumn 2022 has already trained more than one in two employees on sustainable finance topics.
In what frame of mind are you approaching this year 2025?
For BNP Paribas, Company Engagement has always acted in a pioneering spirit. We will therefore continue to cultivate this state of mind in partnership with the Group's business lines and functions, in the service of our clients. We can rely on all our Engagement referents, on the many experts in sustainable finance at BNP Paribas, but also on all its employees around the world who contribute to our common objective: to support our clients in their transition, day after day.