French bank Société Générale has announced that it will stop funding new oil and gas projects and halve its exposure to the upstream sector by 2025.
The bank said in a press release published on Monday that this is up from the 20% reduction it had previously pledged.
"We will accelerate the decarbonisation of our businesses and work closely with our clients and partners to maximize our positive impact at the forefront of the energy, environmental and social transition," SocGen CEO Slawomir Krupa said in a statement.
In addition to the 2025 target, the bank said it plans to cut its upstream oil and gas exposure by 80% by 2030, also in comparison to 2019 levels, as well as shelving its offer of financial products and services dedicated to new oil and gas production field projects at the beginning of 2024.
Climate NGOs are often quick to target large, global banks for their role in exacerbating the climate crisis due to their funding of new oil projects.
SocGen said on Monday that it is launching a €1billion transition investment fund dedicated to energy transition solutions and nature-based projects to support the UN's sustainable development goals.
It also outlined new financial objectives relating to profitability, operational efficiency and risk management.
FTSE 100
The UK's top share index, the FTSE 100, was down six-points at 7,646 shortly after opening this morning, following yesterday's 58-point drop.
Brent crude futures were up 0.55% at $94.95 a barrel.
Companies reporting today
- Asos (Trading statement)
- Hargreaves Landsdown (Full-year results)
- Kingfisher (Half-year results)
- Moonpig (Trading statement)
- Ocado Group (Q3 trading statement)
- SThree (Q3 trading statement)
- TUI (Trading statement)