BNP Paribas, France's largest bank, will no longer provide any financing dedicated to the development of new oil and gas fields, and it reiterated it targets an 80% cut of its oil exploration financing by 2030.
"BNP Paribas no longer provides dedicated financing for the development of new oil and gas fields, regardless of the financing terms," the bank said on Thursday.
In January, BNP Paribas had already announced plans to cut oil exploration financing by 80% until 2030, and on Thursday, it confirmed it was on track with its climate change targets for the power generation, oil and gas, and the automotive sectors.
Banks have been announcing plans to shift towards lower-carbon sectors and away from fossil fuels, although with many of their goals being targeted out to 2030, it can be hard to assess progress.
BNP's French rival Societe Generale last year said it wants to reduce its financial exposure to the oil and gas production sectors by 20% by 2025 compared to 2019. Credit Agricole pledged it would stop financing oil extraction projects by 2025.
Scientists say the world has only seven to eight years left before passing the 1.5C global warming limit set in the 2015 Paris Agreement, which would mean countries, companies, and individuals have to halve their emissions every decade until 2050.
BNP on Thursday also said it had set new portfolio alignment targets for 2030 for the emissions-heavy steel, aluminum, and cement sectors, saying it is looking to cut the 'emissions intensity' of its investments by 10 to 25% from last year.
(Reuters - Reporting by Tassilo Hummel;Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta and Richard Lough)