Societe Generale SA Further Reduces Ties With Coal

   By Maitane Sardon 
 

Societe Generale SA (GLE.FR) is further limiting its ties to the coal industry, as the French bank works toward aligning its activities with the Paris Agreement on climate change.

SocGen said Thursday that it will cut ties with companies that plan to expand their thermal coal capacities and will also stop offering financial services and products to clients whose thermal coal activities represent 50% or more of their total activity.

The lender will also halt its interaction with businesses whose thermal coal activities represent 30% to 50% of their total if they don't have a reduction strategy in place to reduce that share to less than 30% by 2025.

The French group stated its intention to reduce its involvement in the fossil fuel sector in 2015, saying at the time that it aimed to limit its portfolio exposure to coal in line with the two-degree scenario set by the Paris Agreement as the global warming limit that will require drastic emissions cuts. SocGen stopped financing coal-related projects the following year.

Financial companies and banks are gradually cutting ties with carbon-intensive fuel sources. BNP Paribas Asset Management said last month it will stop investing in companies that derive more than 10% of their revenue from mining thermal coal or account for more than 1% of total global coal production in 2020.

Last year, French insurer AXA SA (CS.FR) said its AXA XL division would stop insuring coal businesses.

Write to Maitane Sardon at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 23, 2019 13:27 ET (17:27 GMT)

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