Caisse des Dépôts has just updated its exclusion policy regarding the oil and gas sector [1], more than a year after Reclaim Finance published a report on its climate action. Effective January 1, 2027, the public manager of French citizens’ savings will no longer invest in bonds issued by oil-producing companies, including TotalEnergies. While this measure represents a significant step forward, it does not allow Caisse des Dépôts to definitively break with the development of fossil fuels. Reclaim Finance analyses the announced change and calls on the institution to end its other ongoing support for fossil fuel expansion.
With 320 billion euros in assets under management at the end of 2025, Caisse des Dépôts is Europe’s third-largest asset owner [2]. The French institution manages money coming from regulated savings accounts (Livret A, LDDS, LEP), investing in projects of public interest, as well as in financial markets. As of the end of 2025, it held 9.8 billion euros in assets of companies operating in the fossil fuel sector.
In its updated policy, Caisse des Dépôts has adopted a key commitment [3]: to stop purchasing bonds issued by oil-producing companies.
A partial halt to funding for fossil fuel development
By ceasing bond investments in oil-producing companies, Caisse des Dépôts is cutting off one of the main sources of funding for companies involved in the development of oil production. The new measure is applicable to TotalEnergies, the world’s sixth-largest developer of oil and gas fields.
However, the commitment does not apply to shares: it is therefore still possible for the institution to participate in new share issuances, another – although rarer – form of financing for these companies.
Whilst the institution deliberately mentions only oil, the commitment actually applies to virtually all developers of new oil and gas fields. Indeed, most oil producers are also gas producers [4].
However, this new commitment has a significant flaw: it covers only the upstream part of the oil and gas value chain. The institution therefore can still finance companies developing new midstream and downstream oil and gas projects, such as Venture Global LNG and ENGIE. This particularly concerns companies involved in the development of liquefied natural gas (LNG), the massive expansion of which poses a threat to communities and ecosystems and jeopardises the achievement of the 2050 carbon neutrality target. Several French investors have already stopped supporting the LNG development [5].
Caisse des Dépôts’ shareholder dialogue remains opaque and ineffective
The updated policy enables the institution to remain a shareholder in companies developing new oil and gas projects, notably TotalEnergies, of which it is the tenth-largest shareholder [6]. The public body justifies retaining these shareholdings to ‘support them in their transition’.
However, the institution lacks transparency regarding its concrete actions. It does not specify what measures will be taken if these companies continue to expand their fossil fuel operations, nor does it set out a timetable for such measures. It merely mentions certain tools, including voting at annual general meetings of the companies in which it holds shares, but does not specify in which circumstances it will vote against the management of these companies and continues to refuse to publish records of its votes.
One cannot help but note that this current approach has failed. Despite years of dialogue, almost all companies in the sector are continuing their expansion into fossil fuels, and several are even showing setbacks on climate action. TotalEnergies, for instance, has reduced its planned investments in its ‘low-carbon’ activities whilst increasing its oil and gas production targets for 2030. The company even acknowledges that it is unable to adopt a climate plan aligned with a 1.5°C pathway as defined by the European Union [7].
To be credible in its shareholder dialogue, Caisse des Dépôts must step up its efforts, at the very least by systematically voting against the re-election of directors and the remuneration of top management at fossil fuel developers at every annual general meeting of the companies in which it holds a share.
Indirect support for fossil fuel expansion through financial partners
Caisse des Dépôts outsources the management of around 10 billion euros in assets to external service providers. Whilst we unfortunately have no information on the identity of Caisse des Dépôts’ service providers, we know that most asset managers still engage in dangerous climate practices, taking us well beyond a 1.5°C pathway.
Recently, many asset owners have withdrawn or refused to award mandates to asset managers who exacerbate climate risks. This summer, the Dutch pension fund Recreatie withdrew a mandate from BlackRock on climate grounds, and the British foundation Nesta did the same with Northern Trust Asset Management.
Although Caisse des Dépôts joined an international coalition to engage asset managers [8] at the start of the year, the institution has not, however, defined clear fossil fuel-related criteria for selecting its external asset managers. Other asset owners are already doing so, such as the French life insurer Maif, which no longer entrusts new investments to managers who have not defined a strategy for phasing out thermal coal by 2030.
Caisse des Dépôts has taken a step forward, but cannot afford to stop there, given that France broke historic temperature records in 2026. It is urgent for the institution to cease all other support for the development of fossil fuels, and for other French investors – such as pension bodies (Agirc-Arrco, the Pension Reserve Fund and ERAFP) – to follow suit.
