French Banks Make a Profit From the Polluting Oil and Gas Industry in the Amazon Basin

In disregard of their ecological commitment, banking groups Credit Agricole, BNP Paribas and BPCE have been investing very discreetly in fossil fuel multinationals accused of polluting the Amazon Basin, an investigation by Disclose, with France 24, and RFI can reveal. The French banks make more than €45 million from these investments each year.

Raising cattle, growing soya and mining for gold: the link between these business activities and Amazon deforestation is well documented. Each year, activists, researchers and international NGOs in Brazil monitor and report such practices by individuals and multinationals. To combat a scourge that is degrading one of the largest biodiversity reserves on Earth, some outlets have decided to look into the financial institutions that have been funding environmental crime. Disclose did just that at the end of 2022 when it took part in a joint investigation on French banks and their links to the agrifood economy involved in Amazon deforestation in Brazil.

Our latest investigation, in partnership with France 24 and Radio France International (RFI) and the support of the Pulitzer Center, sheds some light on another activity that is destroying the Amazon region: the oil and gas industry. But it is less well known that deep in the Amazon Basin in Peru and Colombia, powerful multinationals are drilling holes to extract gas and oil. The fossil fuel is then transported through huge pipelines that tear up the land and change its ecosystems. These firms, including Repsol and Ecopetrol, are determined to make a profit from the oil and gas fields in the Amazon region, and they can rely on direct and indirect support from France’s main banking groups, namely Credit Agricole, Banque Populaire et Caisse d’Epargne (BPCE) and BNP Paribas.

---

As a nonprofit journalism organization, we depend on your support to fund more than 170 reporting projects every year on critical global and local issues. Donate any amount today to become a Pulitzer Center Champion and receive exclusive benefits!

---

The investigation conducted by Disclose and its partners, based on analysis of exclusive financial data, reveals that these financial institutions lend their support through operations that are as discreet as they are valuable for their beneficiaries by buying shares, i.e. part of the firms’ capital, and bonds issued by these companies. For example, at the end of August 2024, Credit Agricole held more than €240m worth of shares and bonds in Repsol, making the French bank the fifth largest investor in the Spanish oil and gas firm. As for Ecopetrol, which is very active in the extraction and production of Colombian crude oil, Credit Agricole holds close to €50m worth of shares and bonds in the company. When it comes to US firm Chevron, which refines oil from Colombia, the French group is its 23rd largest investor, according to company accounts, with investments close to €1.8bn.

Our investigation reveals that support from the French banking groups for the three energy multinationals enables them to make a handsome profit, with a total of dividends and interests worth more than €45m per year, including €30m for Credit Agricole alone. And this does not take into account fees relating to the issuing of bonds and to the interest payment on loans granted earlier. To make a quiet profit from this windfall, Credit Agricole, BNP Paribas and BPCE use their asset management subsidiaries, whose activity is “more opaque,” according to Lara Cuvelier, a campaign manager at NGO Reclaim Finance. These little-known subsidiaries are called Amundi (Credit Agricole), Natixis Investment Managers (BPCE) and BNP Paribas Asset Management. They are responsible for investing the funds of their clients — both companies and private individuals — in markets. Through financial products such as a life insurance policy or an employee savings plan, some of their clients make a profit unknowingly from Amazon deforestation and pollution.

Credit Agricole, BPCE and BNP Paribas did not respond to requests for comment on particular companies. About their subsidiaries’ investment strategies, their answers differed. Credit Agricole says it is looking into the possibility of backing oil and gas companies “on the basis of the credibility of their commitment to energy transition”. BNP Paribas explains that it is content managing “assets on behalf of investing clients” and, as such, that it gets “neither dividends nor interests from these shares and bonds”. BPCE accounts for its policy by saying that “direct income from activities linked to fossil fuels is only a small part of the group’s global income”.

“Banking groups need to make sure that their asset management subsidiaries no longer invest in the new bonds of companies developing fossil fuel projects,” says Lara Cuvelier. She says that these subsidiaries “may decide to resell the bonds they hold and, instead, invest in companies that are really capable of achieving energy transition”. But the three multinationals do not seem to fit into that category: Ecopetrol is unlikely to meet its 2025 carbon neutrality commitments; Chevron has invested nearly $1bn in the development of new oil and gas fields around the world; and Repsol makes a mockery of the International Energy Agency (IEA)’s goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, according to the latest data from Global Oil & Gas Exit List.

Investigation: Alexander Abdelilah, with France 24 and RFI.
Editing: Mathias Destal
Translation from French: Béatrice Murail