The largest bank in the euro zone, BNP Paribas, announced on Thursday that it was no longer funding initiatives aimed at metallurgical coal production.

“This new commitment is part of BNP Paribas’ efforts to align its credit portfolio in the steel sector with its ‘Net Zero’ commitment,” the Paris-based lender said in a statement.

The term “net zero commitment” describes agreements to reduce funded carbon emissions to zero by the year 2050.

Earlier this year, the BNP stated that it has set goals to reduce carbon emissions financing across the oil and gas, power generation, automotive, steel, aluminium, and cement industries.

In September 2022, the lender made a significant commitment to reduce its credit exposure to petrol and oil by 30% and 80%, respectively, by 2030.

Additionally, it declared in May that it would stop offering any funding for the exploration and development of new oil and gas reserves.

Protest organisations have pushed BNP Paribas to expeditiously remove itself from financing fossil fuels; in February, a few of them even filed a lawsuit against the French bank.

“BNP Paribas recalls that since 2020 it has been committed to a path towards a complete exit from the financing of the entire value chain of companies linked to thermal coal by 2030 in Europe and in the OECD countries, and by 2040 in the rest of the world,” the bank said.

The release of a report on “Metallurgical Coal Financing” by the non-governmental organisation Reclaim Finance and the BNP’s statement on Thursday happened at the same time.

The research states that since 2016, the 50 largest developers in the metallurgical coal sector have received $557 billion in financing from the greatest banks in the world, including BNP.

(Adapted from MarketScreener.com)