Green finance
The scientific observation is clear, global warming is a reality that we have to face. The energy transition is more than ever an imperative imposed on everyone: this is why the Crédit Agricole SA Group, through its CSR strategy, has decided to make green finance a key to growth.
Green finance: a key to growth for the Group
The scientific observation is clear: global warming is racing and the impacts on ecosystems are considerable.
on the one hand, scientific and technological advances have never been so rapid and promising, on the other, global warming, social inequalities, the pauperization of territories in the past. prosperity and the fear of social downgrading weakens our economies. Climate change is undeniable and the scientific experts, gathered around the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change comprising 195 States), are unanimous: the planet's climate is warming up under the effect of gas emissions. greenhouse effect (GHG) linked to human activities. The symptoms are already widely noticeable with an increase of around + 1 ° C between the last decade and the pre-industrial years, 2015-2019 to be the five hottest years ever recorded on the surface of the globe.
And the trend path established by the IPCC brings this increase to + 4 ° C by 2100, with its share of foreseeable consequences: increase in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather phenomena, rise in sea level with consequences significant migrations of coastal populations, acceleration of the fall in biodiversity, already strongly impacted by pollution and deforestation, threats to food security and drinking water supply, etc.
In question, the increase in CO2 emissions due to the use of fossil fuels (in particular for electricity production and transport) and land use changes, but also those of methane and nitrous oxide mainly due to agriculture. It is our entire economy, which is too carbon-intensive, and our consumption patterns that are called into question.
It is now more than 80% of Europeans who consider that global warming is a very serious problem. And around the world, civil society is mobilizing on the subject, in particular the youngest, rightly worried about their future, who are calling on governments for their inaction.
The key role of climate finance.
The Paris Agreement, concluded in 2015 at the end of the COP21, commits the signatory states on a trajectory of limiting global warming to less than + 2 °, in 2100, corresponding to the most ambitious IPCC scenario. It also aims to “make financial flows compatible with an evolution profile towards development with low greenhouse gas emissions and resilient to climate change”. The contribution of financial institutions is indeed essential in this transition and the Crédit Agricole Group, the world's leading cooperative bank and the leading financier of the French economy, is fully participating in it.
Long committed to the subject (signatory of the Equator Principles in 2003, the Climate Principles in 2008 and co-founding member of the Green Bonds Principles), it is with full legitimacy and determination that the Crédit Agricole Group adopted in 2019 a climate strategy, which is fully part of its “Ambitions 2022” Group strategic plan. Aligned with the Paris Agreement, the main ambition of this Group strategy is the gradual reallocation of financing and investment portfolios and of managed assets for the benefit of the energy transition. The Group has also adhered to the Principles for Responsible Banking and joined the United Nations Collective Commitment to Climate Action, thus confirming the alignment of its climate strategy with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the 2015 Paris Agreement.
World leader in green bonds, pioneer in climate finance for almost 10 years (estimation of the carbon footprint of our financing portfolio from 2011, implementation of sectoral policies including the rejection of the Arctic offshore from 2012 and in 2015, end of project financing for mines and coal-fired power plants in 2015 and 2016), the Crédit Agricole Group is more determined than ever to work in favor of the energy transition.
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The social project, or strong commitment to society ensures the commitment to make green finance a major key to our growth, to act in the interest of energy transition.
Dominique Lefebvre, Philippe Brassac et Raphaël Appert
Read the full message from Dominique Lefebvre, Philippe Brassac and Raphaël Appert to employees
To find out more about green finance:
Declaration of Extra-Financial Performance
Reporting Principles for Responsible Banking (PRB)
The Paris Agreement, concluded in 2015 at the end of the COP21, commits the signatory states on a trajectory of limiting global warming to less than + 2 °, in 2100, corresponding to the most ambitious IPCC scenario. It also aims to “make financial flows compatible with an evolution profile towards development with low greenhouse gas emissions and resilient to climate change”. The contribution of financial institutions is indeed essential in this transition and the Crédit Agricole Group, the world's leading cooperative bank and the leading financier of the French economy, is fully participating in it.
Long committed to the subject (signatory of the Equator Principles in 2003, the Climate Principles in 2008 and co-founding member of the Green Bonds Principles), it is with full legitimacy and determination that the Crédit Agricole Group adopted in 2019 a climate strategy, which is fully part of its “Ambitions 2022” Group strategic plan (link). Aligned with the Paris Agreement, the main ambition of this Group strategy is the gradual reallocation of financing and investment portfolios and of managed assets for the benefit of the energy transition. The Group has also adhered to the Principles for Responsible Banking and joined the United Nations Collective Commitment to Climate Action, thus confirming the alignment of its climate strategy with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the 2015 Paris Agreement.
World leader in green bonds, pioneer in climate finance for almost 10 years (estimation of the carbon footprint of our financing portfolio from 2011, implementation of sectoral policies including the rejection of the Arctic offshore from 2012 and in 2015, end of project financing for mines and coal-fired power plants in 2015 and 2016), the Crédit Agricole Group is more determined than ever to work in favor of the energy transition.
